An Even Match
by jia.kameda
Summary: When one hits puberty the name of one's soul mate appears on the wrist of the non-dominant hand. When Tsukishima Kei gets his mark, he is slightly unhappy, but when he finally meets his match, he is even more so. Kuroo Tetsuro on the other hand rejoices at his soul mate's name as he misreads it and goes looking for someone else even though his mate is right under his nose.
1. Chapter 1

Having a soul mate is something wonderful, at least that is what people who have a soul mate say. However, people who don't, usually say that people who do everything to find their soul mate are not pragmatic enough and it had been customary in Japan for centuries to not marry the soul mate, at least the wealthy class thought it more of a hindrance than an advantage to marry the soul mate, as marriage was not about love or a perfect fit between the marriage partners but rather about the families and circumstances matching.

Tsukishima Kei had as a child, thought that having a soul mate would be wonderful, but as he grew older and was disappointed in life – or rather in his worldview when he found out that his older, and much admired brother had lied to him –, he had started to think that indeed finding the soul mate would probably cause problems, because no matter how well suited two people could be for each other, one would be disappointed at some point and if he hated something, then it was disappointment. So he had not looked forward to hitting puberty and seeing the name on his wrist unlike his brother Akiteru had done. When he finally got the name, he looked at it with a smirk, grabbed a plaster and covered the two neat kanji with it, so that no one would be able to read them. Akiteru and his mother had been deeply disappointed when he had refused to remove the plaster and show them the name underneath it, despite them insisting that it wasn't fair that he had seen their names but didn't show them his.

His mother had the first name of her husband on her wrist of the non-dominant hand and she had never tired of telling her sons the story of how she had met their father and immediately known that he was the one. As a child, Kei had thought that that was how it was supposed to be, but now he only frowned when his mother said: "You know, I don't know what kind of first name is on your wrist and if you really don't want to show me, I'll accept it – as I will accept it when you come back to introduce me to the person who's name is there. I know you will meet them and I know you will know it immediately when you do – it will hit you like lightning." Kei only shrugged and left the breakfast table soon afterwards.

Yamaguchi Tadashi, whom he met on his way to school, too tried to coax him into telling him the name on his wrist, but gave up after a while. However, he renewed his efforts a couple of months later when he himself got the name on his own wrist. "Don't you want to know, Tsukki?" he asked.

"Not really." Tsukishima shrugged and walked on.

Yamaguchi had been a bit disappointed, but got over it quickly. He eventually did show Tsukishima the name, but not intentionally. Most people on their volleyball team didn't bother to cover the name on their wrist during practice, as most items that could be used to cover them up were a hindrance when receiving or serving the ball.

Outside the sports circle it was more common to hide the name, especially girls liked to make a secret out of it, probably because the media propagated that it was unbecoming to fall for someone who wasn't the possible soul mate. Yamaguchi did once voice the opinion that maybe the media were right, but Tsukishima only shrugged. He didn't care either way, he would not go out of his way to find his soul mate and he would probably also stay away from them if he would happen to find them. Probably old traditions had been more right about the whole thing than the modern love craze. So he would just marry some person who had nothing to do with the name of his soul mate, that was, if he would marry at all.

It was only a couple of years later, when he had entered Karasuno High School that he learned what it really meant to meet the one.

It had been a day like any other or not exactly, as it was on the day Nekoma High School's volleyball team came to visit them for a practice match. It first started when they met the other team in front of the communal gym where the match was held. Something in his stomach didn't feel like it usually felt. It was a tingling sensation, rather weak but still noticeable and at first Tsukishima did not pay much attention to it, as it did not compromise his ability to play. However, the feeling persisted while the team of Nekoma was around.

And then, when he was in vanguard and faced Nekoma's NR. 1, he suddenly saw it, there on his wrist was the kanji "蛍". The tingling stopped as he held his breath for a moment. _Nonsense.  
_

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 _Author's note:_

For those who don't know Japanese: "蛍" is the kanji used to write Tsukishima's first name "Kei". However, it can also be read as "Hotaru" and means firefly. It is a gender neutral name in both readings and unless specifics are given (like the reading of the kanji or the intended gender) it is up to the reader to interpret the reading/gender.

General information: I'll try to post a chapter every month, so this is a story with rather slow progress I'm sorry.


	2. Chapter 2

Society puts too much weight on having a soul mate, at least that is what people who don't find or can't be bothered to find their soul mate usually say. However, people who do find their soul mate, usually say that there was nothing in the world that compared to being with their significant other, even if being with the soul mate meant to give up other things in their lives. The best proof of that were all those failed marriages in societies, which did not place value on marrying for love.

Of course people could fall in love with someone who was not their soul mate, but marrying them was an altogether different matter. Or so thought Kuroo Tetsurou.

When he had woken up one day when he had been around thirteen years old and had seen is soul mate's name on his left wrist, he had been happy beyond measure. "蛍" had been written on his wrist. So his soul mate would probably be a girl named "Hotaru". That morning, he had dressed hastily and run to his friend's house to show him the mark.

"I got mine!" he had shouted when storming into Kozume Kenma's room. "Look! Look!" He had practically shoved his arm into the face of a still sleepy Kenma. "It's 'Hotaru'."

"Good for you." Kenma had yawned and rubbed his eyes after Kuroo had pulled away his arm.

He was now sitting on the bed and staring at his arm. Mesmerized by the dark brown kanji he stroked it with his right thumb. "Do you think she'll be cute?" He continued before Kenma could give any answer. "I bet she'll be a beauty with long black hair and a cute style. She'll have friendly eyes. She'll come to watch all my volleyball matches and cheer me on." A blissful expression adorned his face.

Despite better judgement, Kuroo started to watch out for any potential 'Hotaru-chan', but he never met a girl by that name and so he gave up on actively looking after about a year. His mother tried to console him by saying that he was still young and that he would find his soul mate eventually, however, he could still love someone else in the meantime. So he held on to that and came to understand that maybe he indeed should first love someone other than his soul mate so that he would come to understand what it meant to be with someone other than friends and family, but as he was engrossed in volleyball practice, he didn't find the time to date anyone.

Now he was in High School and used to the name on his wrist and also used to the fact that he hadn't met the girl that was meant for him yet. He didn't go around looking for her but he knew, deep down, that he would meet her eventually as he liked to remind Kenma and he also like to remind Kenma that he too should try and look for the person on his own wrist. Just because he wasn't all that good with human relations didn't mean that he would not get to meet his soul mate.

"Hm…" Kenma shrugged every time when pestered by his friend.

"Come on" Kuroo had answered to Kenma's reaction this time, "'Hitoka' isn't all that uncommon a name and it is rather cute, I'd say." He slung his arm around Kenma's shoulder and stirred him in a different direction so as to prevent his friend from tripping off the pavement.

"I don't care either way."

"I know." Kuroo sighted. "Well… Maybe it is still a bit early for you. I mean, you didn't get your name until a year and a half ago, so maybe that means you will not meet her very soon."

"Maybe." Kenma was indifferent to the topic, as always. Kuroo was sure that Kenma would accept any assessment given, even if someone would say that 'Hitoka' referred to a character in a video game, he would be satisfied. And maybe he was actually hoping for that, as he didn't really show any interest in real people.

"Okay, let's get our head back to volleyball, you said you met one of Karasuno's team just now?"

"At least his t-shirt said he was."

"You looked up from your game long enough to read something on someone's shirt?" exclaimed Kuroo in mocked shock. "Do you have a fever?" Despite having said it as a joke, he raised the back of his hand to the forehead of his childhood friend to check for an unusually high temperature. Kenma didn't say anything as they walked on.

It didn't take long until they reached their accommodation and re-joined their teammates for that days practice match.

It did strike Kuroo as a bit odd, when Kenma said that he was somehow looking forward to the match and for a moment he thought, that his friend had actually met his match, but remembering that he had told him the name of the boy he had met that day was not 'Hitoka'. However, he did have a feeling of foreboding when he fell asleep that night.

Unfortunately, he was disappointed. The meeting with the volleyball team of Karasuno High School did not prove to be interesting in that way. It was a good match, but his hope to find Kenma's soul mate was crushed. Kasaruno did have a female manager, but as he later heard from Yamamoto Taketora, her first name was Kiyoko.

Still, Kuroo did enjoy seeing how Kenma interacted with someone he hadn't known for very long, that Hinata was really something… Maybe that was the reason he had a weird, tingling feeling in his stomach, he did tend to get very involved when an opponent proved to be really interesting, or maybe it was the fault of the heavy breakfast.

The feeling did stay until they left the communal gym that day, so it was not very likely, that it had much to do with his eating habits, but Kuroo had forgotten all about the feeling due to the match and he didn't pay much attention if his body tried to tell him something that did not immediately restrict his ability to play volleyball.

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Notes: A huge "Thank you" to everyone for favorites, follows, kudos and comments! I am grateful to know that there are people reading and appreciating this story.

Please don't be upset with the not so long chapters despite me taking 1 month to update, but you see, I've got this fic planned out (I've already written almost half the chapters) and the first chapters are short. I try to keep the chapters short so I can reread them easily and check for typing mistakes, as well as make sure I don't run into the trouble of an irregular update schedule because I get hooked on some other thing (I actually am writing another fic which I would want to post some when) or because life happens.

FYI: I post this parallel on archive...

Translation note: For those who don't know Japanese: "蛍" is the kanji used to write Tsukishima's first name "Kei". However, it can also be read as "Hotaru" and means firefly. It is a gender neutral name in both readings and unless specifics are given (like the reading of the kanji or the intended gender) it is up to the reader to interpret the reading/gender.


	3. Chapter 3

"That Chibi sure was something", he mused to Kenma as they sat in the bus on their way home.

"Hm" Kenma was playing a video game as usual.

"But the rest of the team wasn't all that bad either." Kuroo smiled. "I hope we get to play them again." To this Kenma agreed and even added: "It would be great to have them at our training camp." Hearing Kenma say something like that, Kuroo's smile widened. As he was the captain and his childhood friend rarely voiced an opinion like the one he just had, he decided to put in a word for this idea with the coach. So he hung around the bus a bit longer than usual after they arrived on the parking lot of their school to catch the elder of the two coaches. " _Kantoku_ " he said, when the older coach, Nekomata, finally had left the bus after checking that no one had forgotten anything. "May I have word?"

"Sure. What is it, Kuroo-kun?" Nekomata smiled in his usual carefree way with his eyes almost closed. Like this he really resembled the cat in his name.

"I was wondering" for a moment he wondered if he should make some idle chitchat before making the suggestion but instead decided to come to the point straight away as Nekomata didn't seem in the mood for a long conversation "if it were possible to invite Karasuno to our training camp with Fukurodani and the other schools."

"That is quite a great favour you're asking." The smile stayed on the coach's face; however, Kuroo knew that he wasn't entirely convinced by the idea, yet.

"I'm aware of that." He stated bluntly but continued in a smooth tone: "But Sir, even Kenma said he would like to play them again. He seemed quite taken by Karasuno's Nr. 10."

As he heard that, Nekomata's smile changed into a wide grin and Kuroo knew he had said the right thing. "Well, well…! If even our apathetic setter seems interested, then I guess I have no choice but to make some effort and convince the other schools so we can invite Karasuno to meet us." They had walked to the gym and Kuroo held the door open for the coach to enter. "But promise me that this has nothing to do with the young folly of searching for one's soul mate." The coach looked at him sharply.

"No Sir, it does not" assured Kuroo and closed the door behind him. "Kenma's name is a girl's and as I am aware no girl was on that team."

"But they did have a rather good looking manager." The old man mused.

"Trust me, it's not her. Or fate would be playing a cruel joke on us."

"There, there! No jealousy." The coach slapped him on the back. "And now back to practice!"

And so it happened that Karasuno High School's volleyball team was invited to join Nekoma and three other teams from the region of Tokyo for their training camps in summer. When the team was officially informed by the coaches that Karasuno would be joining them, Kuroo's team mates were very happy and especially Taketora voiced his pleasure at seeing the manager of the other team again, even though he would not talk to her and told everyone who would dare to tease him about her that she was not his soul mate but that he still liked to look at her from afar.

Karasuno was the last team to arrive on the location of the first training camp and as it had been partly Kuroo's idea to invite them the burden of welcoming them fell on to him, so he had to stand outside close to the parking lot and wait for the arrival of the bus. It was really not his favourite task, but what could he do?

While he was standing there, he thought of Bokuto's face when he had told him that they'd meet a very interesting team. As they had been friends since they had met in their first training camp they met up every now and then and especially before the camp this time they had met up, as both of them had been elected as captain of their respective teams and therefore bore some responsibility, so they had met about a week before to discuss some things while eating something at a McDonalds.

"Do you know that team, Karasuno?" Bokuto had asked when going through the list of the participating schools.

"Yeah, we played a match against them on our training camp in Sendai." Kuroo had eaten a fry. "They are amazing, I tell you."

"Amazing?"

"Well, of course not as good as us – but what do you want?" He had shrugged. "But they have very interesting first years – even Kenma was impressed enough to say he'd like to play them again."

"Kenma was? Wow" Bokuto's eyes had widened and he had once again looked at the paper on which was written:

Participating schools:

1\. Nekoma (Coach: Nekomata, Naoi; Captain: Kuroo), 2. Fukurodani (Coach: Yamiji; Captain: Bokuto), 3. Shinzen (Coach: Nakata; Captain: Daiki), 4. Ubugawa (Coach: Satoh; Captain: Gora), 5. Karasuno (Coach: Ukai; Captain: Sawamura).

"I do remember they used to be good – didn't Nekoma regularly play them because your coach was a friend of Karasuno's?"

"It seems – but the new coach of Karasuno is the grandson of said friend and not the old one anymore. It seems that Karasuno lost contact with other good school when coach Ukai retired – that's why they are so interesting." Kuroo had grinned. "Imagine a team you know nothing about. Literally nothing because you've never seen them on TV or played against them in a training match and they are so unconventional – at least in part – that most moves they make are not like you expect them to be."

"That sounds intriguing." Bokuto grinned. "I hope they are as good as you make them out to be."

"Of course they have their flaws – and I'm sure we're still the stronger teams. But that doesn't mean their not interesting." Upon hearing that Bokuto's eyes had begun to sparkle and Kuroo had smirked. Yes, that was exactly the reaction he had been waiting for and now he was waiting for that team, which his friend was looking forward to meeting, to arrive. When they finally did, he shook Sawamura's hand and showed them the way to the gym.

It did not slip his notice that this time there was a second manager with them, she was a cute girl with a little longer than chin length hair and a small frame, so he voiced his jealousy in a mocking tone: "You lucky bastards, you managed to recruit a cute first year to take over the managing job and we still don't have any girl that's interested in helping us out."

"What can I say?" Sawamura smirked. "Shimizu is very efficient."

"Stop boasting! What's her name?" Kuroo glanced over his shoulder to take another look at the thin blond girl. She walked behind Shimizu-san with an anxious expression while carrying a bag that seemed way to big for her, "She looks terrified – are you sure she'll be all right?"

"Shimizu's still here to protect her and I'm sure Yachi will get the hang of it sometime."

To Kuroo Sawamura sounded like a very relaxed parent so he snickered but let it slip, instead he asked: "Yachi?" He just saw how she dropped something and overly enthusiastically apologized to the person who picked it up for her.

"Yes", Sawamura arched an eyebrow; probably thinking it was odd that Kuroo did not feel like the girls last name was enough information. "Yachi Hitoka."

"Isn't it nice to know the names of everyone?" They entered the gym and Kuroo went off while grinning at Sawamura who himself grinned back and both of them thought again how the other one was a sly person.

As he arrived with his team he slapped Kenma's back and whispered in his ear: "I found a Hitoka."

* * *

Authors note:

Vocabulary:

 _Chibi_ \- shrimp

 _Kantoku_ \- means (among other things) "coach" in Japanese and they use it in Haikyuu when referring to a coach, eg. season 1 episode 8 "Ukai-kantoku" (Ukai-kun's grandfather) or season 2 episode 9 "Nekomata-kantoku". However, when directly addressing a coach they usually use "Name + sensei". I used _kantoku_ in this chapter because I am not sure how Kuroo would address his coaches, as there are two, and to make the distinction clear, I opted to use _kantoku_ rather than _sensei_. Maybe I'll change that in the future, if I am faced with that problem again.

 _General: As there are no official names for the coaches of Shinzen and Ubugawa I took the liberty of naming them. I took names (Nakata and Satoh), which are fairly common (Satoh being the most common surname in Japan and Nakata is very common last name found in textbooks for learner of Japanese as the kanji are the same as for Tanaka) but not the same as any existing character's name (at least I hope I did) to avoid confusion._


	4. Chapter 4

Karasuno lost most of the matches that day and also on the following, but Kuroo took pleasure in seeing them crushed – as did Bokuto, he was not in the least disappointed in the team Kuroo had so praised. They sat together on the grass during lunchtime and exchanged opinions on whether the crows, as they had started to call them, would win at least one game that day. Kuroo bet that they would not win any game but win one set in each game they still had to play – except in the game against Nekoma of course. Bokuto was of the opinion that they would not win any game but maybe, if lucky, win one set in total that afternoon.

"You have a bad hobby," said Akaashi as he sat down next to the two captains.

"But it's fun" replied Bokuto and smiled. "What do you think?"

"I hope they win at least one game – just for their moral's sake."

"So nice of you Akaashi." Kuroo stretched himself and lie down in the grass. Before he covered his face with the towel he used during time outs to wipe away the sweat he shot a glance at Kenma who was sitting with Hinata Shouyou. The new manager of Karasuno was nowhere to be seen. _Not unexpected_ , Kuroo thought but still couldn't help but be a little disappointed.

"Yes, isn't my Akaashi not a good boy?" Bokuto grinned at Kuroo who couldn't see him anymore and when Bokuto noticed he turned his head in disappointment. "Are you getting old, or is it the height of fashion to have a nap after lunch?"

"Just relaxing." The black haired boy yawned. "And what do you mean, 'your' Akaashi? Is he your soul mate?"

"Getting old, I see." Bokuto laughed. "Well, it does read 'Keiji' on my wrist, so who knows?"

"Only, if it is not required that my wrist reads your name." Akaashi sounded a bit sour. "And I do believe it should read it and as it does not, your Keiji must be someone different."

"So what _does_ your wrist read?" asked Bokuto interested and tired to grab his teammate's arm.

Akaashi escaped Bokuto's attempts at catching him and stood up. "That is none of your business" with those words he turned around and walked away.

"Aww! Don't be so cold Akaashi! You know we're meant to be!" Bokuto shouted after him, but he didn't get any response. "Did you see that?! How cold!" he asked in fake outrage. "Oh right, you didn't see it because you're taking a nap like some old man."

Kuroo didn't move anything except for his mouth. First he smiled, then he said: "Oh shut up – and does your wrist really have Akaashi's given name on it?"

"Yes! You could just pay attention next time we face off at the net and you'll see it. It's first the same kanji as the '京/kyo' from 'Tokyo' and then the kanji for '治る/naoru' (to heal). I bet Akaashi's name actually is mine, he's just a fucking _tsundere_."

"You've never seen the name on his wrist?" Kuroo was a little surprised. He had thought that Bokuto would have forced his _kouhai_ to show him the mark first thing they met.

"No" Bokuto grumbled. "He wouldn't show me… He's actually hiding it under a plaster! Can you believe it?" Now he sounded agitated, his voice a bit raised. "Who does that?"

"Now that you mention it – Karasuno's 11 does that too."

"Karasuno's 11?"

"Megane-kun." Kuroo lifted the towel from his face and sat up.

"Oh!" Bokuto's face lit up in recognition of the pet name. "Now that you've said it, I did wonder about it. He's the only one of his team who does it, if I remember correctly."

"As far as I know, yes. What do you think his name is?" Kuroo rubbed his eyes and yawned. "The one on his wrist, I mean" he added after Bokuto gave him a puzzled look.

"Must be something embarrassing – maybe it's Shinzo." Bokuto giggled.

"Or Junichiro."

"Oh! Or it's something foreign like Teriiza or Angera."

"Erizabesu."

"What's that?"

"Isn't that like the English Queen's name?"

Bokuto let out a hearty laugh and they amused themselves by finding more, in their opinion, ridiculous names, which might be under the younger player's plaster until the break was over and they had to go back to practice.

It was a week later that Kuroo accidentally found out what the name on the middle blocker's wrist was. It was during the third night of the second training camp, they had just finished the extra practice in blocking and headed for the showers. "So" Kuroo said and slung his arm around the neck of the blond, who's name he had found out was Tsukishima "You're not all that bad at volleyball. When did you start it, Tsukki?"

"Elementary school" answered Tsukishima brusquely. "I'd appreciate it, if you would refrain from hanging around my neck" he tried to free himself from the older boy in vain "or using the name Yamaguchi insist on using for me." He frowned while saying this.

"But isn't it an endearing name?" Kuroo grinned. "And elementary school? I wouldn't have thought so, as you seem to lack enthusiasm for the sport to actually keep at it for so long."

"It happens that I am not half bad, so there is no reason to quit it."

"Well, well! That sounds half assed." He didn't get any answer to this. Tsukishima still struggled to get out of the embrace and Kuroo let go of him as they entered the changing room. He picked the rack next to Tsukishima to put his clothes and towel on. When he had completely undressed he walked to the glass door which lead into the shower room and held it open for the blond who passed him frowning – now maybe because he couldn't see clearly as he had taken off his glasses. Just because it seemed fun to annoy Karasuno's middle blocker, Kuroo chose the shower and tap just next to the one where Tsukishima had sat down and as expected, the other guy pointedly ignored him. It was a very different from sitting next to Bokuto or even Kenma; Bokuto would be constantly blabbering about something, not caring that they were both naked and cleaning themselves and Kenma, well he would say some one or two words when spoken to but try and finish his shower. Tsukishima, however, didn't respond to any question and took his sweet time washing his entire body while not at all being conscious of his surrounding. It was quite interesting and Kuroo continued to observe the blond man while he himself had finished his shower and sat in the large bathtub. Except for the two of them there were some two or three other people in the room, one being Sawamura who came over to Kuroo to chat a bit and the captain of Nekoma would have almost missed the time Tsukishima left the bath again – without even setting one foot into the bathtub – so he sprang out of the hot water and out of the room to go and dry himself. It was then as he stood next to a naked Tsukishima that he noticed that the plaster had come off. It hung loose from the wrist, only attached on one of the four sides. Without really thinking about it, Kuroo tackled Tsukishima, grabbed his wrist and ripped the plaster off, so that he could read the name properly. 鉄朗 (Tetsu-Rou) was written there.

At first, Tsukishima was too taken by surprise to do anything but soon he gained his countenance back, swore at Kuroo and hid the kanji behind his hand, even though it was already too late, as the black haired boy had already read them.

He chuckled. "What's up with you? No need to be so uptight." He smacked him on the back. "Just because those are the same kanji as for my name doesn't mean I'll think you're after me – after all, my name is the one of a girl." He smiled.

Tsukishima shot him a glare, still covering his wrist with his other hand. "First of all, it is my personal decision whom I show the name to – I fell violated in my personal space. And second, this is the same as your name?" He seemed honestly confused.

"Yes – didn't you know?" Kuroo raised an eyebrow. "Nekoma High School Volleyball Team Captain, Number 1, Middle Blocker, Kuroo Tetsurou" he mockingly introduced himself. As Tsukishima kept frowning at him he added: "Presumed soul mate: a girl by the name of Hotaru. Haven't met her, but I will sooner or later." He grinned from one ear to the other. "So have you met your Tetsurou yet?"

Tsukishima made some noise that seemed to voice his annoyance; this topic seemed not to be one he liked. "None of your business" he finally said and put a new plaster over his wrist before quickly putting his clothes back on.

"So you haven't! No need to be ashamed. If you want to, I'll see if I meet some other Tetsurou in Tokyo and report back to you." Kuroo got dressed as well. "Come, give me your Line contact details." He extended his hand as they walked out of the door of the changing room.

As he looked on his phone later that week on the bus and typed his first message to Tsukishima, he wondered if Kenma had brought up the courage to ask Yachi or at least Hinata for their number contact details, he hadn't asked as he didn't want to put any pressure on his friend, but he was still curious.

14:05 Kuroo Tetsurou: I'm looking forward to staying in contact. :)

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Author's note:

I hope you liked the story so far. I updated 2 chapters this time because I felt that chapter 3 in itself is a bit short and doesn't help progressing the main story here, well, it was thought as sort of an interjection anyways because I feel that it is important to also show part of the progress in my Kozume/Yachi (though it is not really progress, I know).

At first I thought that instead of posting the chapters separately, I would just fuse them and make them one long chapter, but when I looked at them it felt more like they ought to be separate entities. Please tell me what you think about it being two chapters. Oh and, sorry that the progress is so slow with the two guys...

Translations/general information:

 _Tsundere_ – someone who acts cold despite having warm feelings. Eg. if you like someone you act cold towards them and deny you're feelings.

 _Kouhai_ – Person who is in a grade below or entered a club/company later than the speaker

 _Megane-kun_ – Mr Glasses

Shinzo – here referring to Abe Shinzo, PM of Japan

Junichiro – here referring to Koizumi Junichiro, former PM of Japan

Teriiza – here referring to Theresa May, PM of GB

Angera – here referring to Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany


	5. Chapter 5

Maybe he was lucky that Nekoma's team captain didn't seem to know that the kanji on his wrist was not an exclusively female name or maybe the name on one's wrist wasn't meant to point to someone one would fall in love with but someone who would influence one's life significantly – and even though Tsukishima hated to admit it, since he had made the acquaintance of this Tetsurou his life had changed, well, mostly his attitude towards the volleyball club had changed. Maybe that was all that was meant by the name – just because Kuroo-san had the kanji he wrote his name with on his wrist didn't need to mean anything. It could indeed be pointing to a girl named Hotaru, it was after all a probable reading of the kanji or maybe it was a boy named Hotaru or a girl named Kei. Everything was possible…

He had gone over these thoughts several times since discovering that Kuroo-san's first name was Tetsurou. The tingling in his stomach hadn't appeared again since that match when he had seen the name on the other guy's wrist for the first time, but he did feel slightly different in his presence as compared to when he was with other people. Or maybe he just imagined that he needed to feel different because he had that name.

 _Nonsense. Just stop thinking about it. Forget it._

He tried to act normal, despite knowing that his feelings were in turmoil. Luckily enough, most people didn't seem to notice that something bothered him and left him alone. Only Sugawara-san shot him an occasional concerned glance, but Tsukishima ignored that. He knew that his senpai would not pester him as long as he didn't mess up during practice.

And he didn't mess up during practice, the only time he messed something up was late at night when he was laying in his bed and thought of Kuroo-san's body in the shower room during the training camp. Even after finding out that Tsukishima's soul mate was a man and he therefore was probably more interested in naked men than women, Kuroo-san had continued to act as he had always acted in front of him. He didn't show any shame or reserve at any time. He tried to feed him more than he could eat, he slung his arm around his shoulder or neck and teased him ceaselessly no matter if they were clothed or not – he even continued to sit next to him in the shower room! Tsukishima had therefore more than enough memories of Kuroo-san's naked body or how his touch felt (at least in innocent places).

Tsukishima was rather happy to know that his poker face worked. Even though he had felt a bit uncomfortable, because, let's face it, Kuroo-san did look very good, especially when wet. He tended to push his hair back when it was drenched in water rather than sweat, so his whole face could be seen; the two narrow hazel eyes and the smirk on the refined lips. His slender torso that moved so elegantly through the room and the muscular buttocks and bare legs – thank the Gods for mathematic formulas - were of course also on display.

It had been difficult to keep himself from getting hard and Tsukishima had pointedly avoided going into the large bath tub after cleaning himself, as he did not know if he had enough self restraint to keep a certain body part limp.

However, as he lay in his own bed, there was no one to observe him, when he stroked himself gently and thought of the tight ass and the refined muscles on Kuroo-san's stomach. He liked imagining the older boy wearing his volleyball uniform. In his fantasies he would pull the shirt a little up, his pants would hang low, so that part pubic hair could be seen and he would give him an alluring grin. "What's wrong, Tsukki – not up for is?" he'd ask and drop the hem of his shirt again. Now his collarbones could be seen sticking out under the shirt. He'd push his hair back and stand in some sexy pose before suddenly being undressed and caressing his own penis. There was always a chair or a couch on which the naked Tetsurou would take a seat on while fucking his fist. "Come." He would lick his lips and invite Tsukishima who would suddenly kneel in front of him, willing to take him into his mouth.

He usually came to the thought of Tetsurou grabbing his head and feeding him his dick while gently caressing his hair. Tsukishima would grab some tissue and then get rid of the evidence of his own perverseness by flushing it in the toilet.

It was of course stupid to fantasise about such things, especially as Tsukishima grew unsure of whether or not he would be able to stay calm when he would see Kuroo-san again. Upon hearing that they would have another training camp with Nekoma he started to refrain from using the captain of said team as his jerkoff material, but soon found that it was rather unsatisfying when he thought of some random person instead.

But how did he get to this stage so fast anyways? He had only reluctantly agreed to giving Kuroo-san his contact information and tried very hard not to answer to the messages he received to fast. The first time he had received a message from Nekoma's captain he had frantically tried to remember how long it usually took him to answer Yamaguchi's messages - because he didn't really have any other friends he cared enough about that he would bother replying to - and made it a rule to reply at half the speed. Well, it was a rule he regularly broke as Kuroo-san just knew what he had to write to make him text back ASAP.

Like that one time after they had finished practice he had seen "Line: 7 new messages".

16:30 - Kuroo Tetsurou: Hey, how's practice?

16:42 - Kuroo Tetsurou: right, you can't text during practice. I know.

16:46 - Kuroo Tetsurou: but you know, I'm the captain of my team and I can :P

16:59 - Kuroo Tetsurou: kidding, we're off today, so I'm just lazing around. And I'm bored.

17:15 - Kuroo Tetsurou: really bored.

17:45 - Kuroo Tetsurou: still not finished?

18:05 - Kuroo Tetsurou: no matter how long you practice you still can't win against us. But nice to know that you try.

18:06 - Kuroo Tetsurou: did I mention I'm bored?

18:10 - Tsukishima Kei: oh, please shut up.

18:11 - Kuroo Tetsurou: Tsukkiii!

18:12 - Tsukishima Kei: is there no one else you can text when you are bored?

18:12 - Kuroo Tetsurou: but I don't get to talk to you unless I'm free to text.

Tsukishima smiled. _No he didn't mean it like that._

18:13 - Tsukishima Kei: ... Am I supposed to feel flattered?

18:13 - Kuroo Tetsurou: sure. Say, have you met any Hotaru lately?

He shook his head still smiling, however, there was a tiny sting in his chest.

18:13 - Tsukishima Kei: Not since you last asked me, which was yesterday.

He put his phone back in the locker so he could change his shirt because getting out of the t-shirt while handling a phone was one thing but buttoning the uniform shirt with one hand was yet impossible.

18:13 - Kuroo Tetsurou: Was worth a try.

18:14 - Kuroo Tetsurou: I had no luck in finding any other Tetsurou neither. Sorry.

18:14 - Kuroo Testurou: don't be sad.

18:14 - Tsukishima Kei: I'm not sad.

18:15 - Kuroo Tetsurou: No need to act tough. It's okay if you cry. Not judging.

18:16 - Tsukishima Kei: ...

18:16 - Kuroo Tetsurou: _typing..._

"Tsukki?" Yamaguchi called him from the door. "I'm leaving first."

"Again extra practice?" He didn't ask out of interest but out of habit. He put his things in his bag, adjusted his headphones and walked towards the door.

"Yes! See you!" Yamaguchi answered quickly before disappearing from the room.

"Can you wait a moment, Tsukishima?" asked Sugawara-san when Tsukishima had almost passed the door. He looked down on his senpai with a deadpan expression.

"Of course" was his answer but he still left the changing room and positioned himself outside to wait.

18:16 - Kuroo Tetsurou: poor baby.

18:17 - Kuroo Tetsurou: let me help you take your mind of the sad business of soul mates. How're your managers doing?

18:18 - Tsukishima Kei: let me just mention that it was you who brought it up in the first place. And I don't know, they seem alive.

He knew Kuroo-san would smile at this matter of fact answer, which did not really give him much information at all. But just the thought of the smile he probably put on the other boy's face made him feel warm. Kuroo-san's smile was nice... Very nice.. Oh it would be such a gorgeous sight... And he would be able to see it again soon...

 _It doesn't matter._

He mentally slapped his face when Sugawara-san gently slapped his back and said: "Sorry for letting you wait."

"No problem." He wondered what Sugawara could want from him and hoped it had nothing to do with his recent obsession.

They walked in silence for a while before Sugawara started speaking: "So, I've heard that you've been in contact with Kuroo from Nekoma since the training camp?"

"Yamaguchi told you that?"

"Yes, he did." They stayed silent again. "Don't get me wrong. Yamaguchi didn't say anything weird."

"Is there anything weird to say?" He wondered if Yamaguchi was less dense than he looked and had figured out why he hid the name on his wrist.

"I suppose not, no. But rest assured that it's okay." Sugawara smiled at him in a friendly manner.

Tsukishima wondered for a split second if he should say something, but he decided to play dumb, after all it was not Sugawara's business: "What is?"

Sugawara sighted. "It's okay, if you don't want to talk about it..." He trailed off.

Tsukishima frowned. That meant that Sugawara did want to talk about it. _But I don't..._ Therefore he kept silent.

Sugawara sighted again, admitting defeat and they parted in silence at the next crossing. Tsukishima put his headphones on and took his phone from his pocket to see if he had any new texts.

No, he was not hoping for texts from Kuroo-san.

Nor did he use the image of a smiling Kuroo-san fresh out of the shower with pushed back hair and a towel wrapped around his hip to jerk off that night. He did not fantasize on how he would touch the nicely formed abs and trail his tongue along the muscular inner tights and touch the soft curly pubic hair with his nose before gently mouthing the older boys balls. And he certainly did not imagine the large, strong hands touch and caress his dick. There was no way his brain would conjure the image of narrow hazel eyes close to his own and a vicious grin while letting him feel fingers probing his hole. He did not think about how it would feel to be taken by Kuroo-san that night when he led himself to his climax.

And he did not feel slightly unsatisfied after throwing away the used tissue paper and not in the least bit unhappy when he did not receive another message from the dark haired boy that night.

* * *

Translation notes:

 _Senpai_ \- Person who is in a grade above or entered a club/company earlier than the speaker


	6. Chapter 6

Texting with Tsukishima was fun.

Kuroo knew that he probably annoyed him more often than not, because he didn't seem like the type to excessively text with his friends - if he even had a lot of friends to text with. Maybe it was a not very nice assumption, but having observed the blond during the training camp he hadn't really seemed like the social type, apart from that Yama-what-was-his-name-again it seemed that he wasn't close with anyone and Tsukki seemed to reject that freckles boy's company on a regular basis as well. Kuroo just remembered the two oft them sitting at a table during a meal and Tsukishima being very tight lipped while giving Freckles that lovely look with the almost frown on his forehead that said "one word and I'll ban you from this table". Kuroo did wonder a bit how Freckles put up with that kind of behaviour. Which made him wonder how he would react if he would see Tsukki every day and got treated that way. But being his senpai by two years he would surely be treated with a bit more respect. Or he would be avoided on purpose...

He had to smile when thinking of that possibility.

Tsukishima had tried to avoid him during the training camp, which had been very endearing, but Kuroo had made sure that it wasn't always possible. Especially when food was concerned or extra practice. God, the boy would starve if not forced to eat more and waste his talent if not bullied into staying behind! "It's just so sad...!" Kenma had looked at him inquisitively ever since he had voiced that opinion but kept his mouth shut.

Taketora on the other hand had asked once why he even bothered with such an unsocial person when he himself obviously had more than enough great players from other teams he could practice with (notably Bokuto). Kuroo had indeed wondered for a moment why he did bother except because of that "it's just such a waste!"-Feeling he had. "Well, don't you also want a worthy rival?" he had said instead and grinned. "Also I don't stand for bullying, just because he's a bit odd doesn't mean he should be ignored. Actually, most of Karasuno's players are a bit odd - or don't you think that that Tanaka-guy isn't quite normal neither?"

"What?" Taketora had gasped and made a face as if he had been personally offended, which made Kuroo snicker, it amused him that Tektora himself seemed to have picked up on the obvious similarities between him and Karasuno wing spiker.

Kenma, who had stood next to the two as that conversation had taken place in the changing room, had just sighted and turned around while typing something on his phone, when Kuroo had shot him a vicious grin.

* * *

Time passed faster than expected. The summer vacation was over in the blink of an eye but the contact with Tsukishima remained as steady as it ever was. They now exchanged a message every two or three days, after initially doing so every day, unless there was a practice match, because that usually agitated Tsukki more than he usually let on with his friends, but he had taken to complaining to Kuroo about one or the other thing that had happened; usually he either criticized Hinata's over enthusiastic manner or Kageyama's royal ways.

Something in Kuroo's chest tingled every time he thought of how endearing it was that the usually cold blond had warmed up to him and had taken to confining in him. It was like when a very shy and hostile animal finally overcame it's fears and became attached to a human. He liked that this specific hostile cat - Kuroo had decided that Tsukishima didn't really fit the image of a crow but rather that of a haughty furry fluff ball - had become attached to him and showed him some trust, despite the still very often displayed coldness.

Tsukki especially liked to pretend to be indifferent when they interacted in real life like during the last training camp before the preliminaries in early autumn. He didn't greet or talk to him after getting off the bus until Kuroo took up the initiative and good-humouredly slapped him on the back and _made_ him talk. It was slightly irritating, Kuroo had to admit, to being so obviously avoided, but Tsukki's act was rather adorable, so he forgave him for putting up a front in the beginning of the short camp and just pushed his way back into Tsukishima's space. Without caring what anyone else thought he spend his breaks with the tall blond, forced food onto his plate during lunch and dinner and dragged him to the gym where Bokuto and Akaashi were waiting for them to do some more blocking and spiking.

* * *

"So" he had laid his arm around Tsukishima's neck. Both of them were sweaty from the extra practice and they were heading to the shower room. "How are you doing lately? Anything you haven't told me?" Kuroo had his usually crooked smiled on the lips.

Tsukki looked perfectly stoic. "I don't think there's anything I want to tell you that I haven't already told you," he said in a perfectly even tone of voice devoid of any emotion.

Kuroo pursed his lips. "Don't be like that." He winked at him. "Come on, you're life must be a bit more interesting than you let on."

"Well, are you interested in the newest findings in palaeontology in regards to dinosaurs? Because that is what has been on my mind lately" stated Tsukishima flatly, wiggled himself free from the bodily contact with Kuroo and opened the door to the changing room of the shower room.

"Really?" Kuroo straightened his clothes, despite that being absolutely unnecessary as he did take them off only a few moments later and put them on the rack next to where Tsukishima put his neatly folded jersey. "You indeed don't act your age... Can't you even pretend to be into what other cute little first years are into?"

"And that you be tits and butts?"

Kuroo faked an offended expression and said in a playful tone: "Oh my, Tsukki! You're such a brute! I was merely referring to Volleyball."

"Like the average teenage boy would be interested in only his school club..."

"You probably just are under bad influence from that Tanaka."

"Let's not mention you who is asking me about soul mates every second day."

"But I neither mention tits nor butts!" Kuroo exclaimed, grabbed his towel and followed Tsukishima to the shower seats.

"True, you mention pretty hair and the occasional dick." Tsukishima's voice was merely a whisper now, as he did not fancy being overheard by the other boys who already sat in the large tub.

Kuroo laughed and slapped the blonde's back. "Well, I do try to keep the conversation interesting for you."

"Thank you very much for the concern." He frowned.

He was just too cute. Somehow Kuroo started to wonder why Tsukki so desperately tried to hide the fact that his soul mate was a man and why he hid his sexuality. Did it not make everything so much more awkward? Kuroo had overheard a conversation between the captain of Karasuno and Sugawara, who could probably be called the team mom, where the grey haired boy had mentioned that he felt like Tsukishima didn't feel fully accepted and seemed to hide some part of himself from the team. Sawamura, who obviously had not understood the implied meaning, had just shrugged and said that Tsukishima was probably just still hung up on the fact that he despised people who gave it their all to something that seemed useless and he would eventually come around.

It had struck him as sad to see that some people seemed to be concerned and wanted to help, but knowing Tsukki, Kuroo was quite sure that Sugawara's interference wasn't appreciated. The way his own questions and suggestions weren't really appreciated. Whenever he asked Tsukishima about any news on the soul mate front he either dogged the question or blocked with a very short answer. Kuroo had figured that the blond wasn't really looking and had no intention of actually doing so, which made him feel oddly sad. It seemed as if the younger boy had already given up and pretended that the soul mate business had nothing to do with him.

Kuroo pursed his lips and then said: "You know, Tsukki, why do you not come and soak in the water to relax a bit?" Maybe he could at least calm his mind. He looked at Tsukki, at his muscular back with the evenly formed buns that made up his butt and the neck where his wet, fair hair was plastered to the pale, smooth skin to be precise. However, Tsukki didn't even turn to look at him when he declined and strode out of the shower room after having finished his shower. Of course this reaction was not unexpected and Kuroo sighted as he followed him out into the cold changing room, as he did not feel like sitting in the tub with Tanaka and Taketora who had entered the shower shortly after them and made a hell of a racket.

"You could have stayed," stated Tsukishima in a low voice while drying his body.

"Where'd be the fun in that?" Kuroo grinned and wrapped the towel around his waist. Like Tsukishima he had put a towel in the rack in the morning, knowing that he would not want to go back to the room where he slept first before going to the showers, however, he, unlike his blond companion, had forgotten to leave a change of clothes there too, so now he had to walk back in his towel and wet hair unless he wanted to change back into his sweaty jersey.

He leaned against the rack while waiting for Tsukishima to change. He let his gaze wander over the rack on the other side of the room. Five of the slots for clothes were filled with carelessly stacked socks, briefs, shorts and shirts. No one except Tsukishima seemed to be thoughtful enough to actually fold his things. Kuroo smirked, looked for a moment at the wooden bench between him and the other rack and then glanced to the side where Tsukki was changing. He had carefully dried every part of his body and stood with his back to Kuroo. His now used towel had been carefully folded and lay on the rack while its blond owner slipped gracefully into a black pair of tight fitting briefs. Everyone else Kuroo would have teased for wearing such an old-fashioned piece of underwear, however, it somehow suited Tsukki and so he kept his mouth shut while he watched him step into a dark blue pair of shorts, before he turned around again to grab a white t-shirt. He pulled that over his white and, compared to Kuroo's, not yet as toned chest.

They left the changing room and walked down the corridor. Kuroo held his towel with one hand while making some elaborate gesture while talking, having dumped the chore of carrying his dirty clothes on the younger player from Karasuno claiming that it was impossible for him not to drop his towel when he had to carry that stuff himself. Tsukishima had sighted and taken the clothes, but not without complaining about how they smelled.

* * *

12:45 Tsukishima Kei: please refrain from sending me abusive messages before games.

12:48 Kuroo Tetsurou: That wasn't meant to be abusive! It's called encouragement.

12:58 Tsukishima Kei: right...

13:01 Kuroo Tetsurou: You'd rather have me write something like: Do your best Tsukii-! 3 I believe in you-! :-*

He grinned at the thought that Tsukishima would probably flinch when reading the message and have a troubled expression on his face. It was just so nice to tease him... To bad he wouldn't see that cute reaction...

"Kuroo..." Kenma had tucked on the short sleeve of his volleyball jersey.

"What is it, Kenma?" Kuroo smiled down on his childhood friend.

"You ought to stop bothering other people and start thinking of you're own game. The others are already looking..." His voice was low and Kenma avoided looking into Kuroo's eyes as he criticized his behaviour, like he always avoided eye contact.

Kuroo on the other hand kept on looking down to his friend and only after the last comment did he look around to realize that indeed, he had been the last player to get ready for their own match, so engrossed he had been in the small conversation on line. He smirked and clapped Kenma on the back. "You're right" he laughed and then added: "Who would have thought that I'm the one still on the phone and not you! Well then, let's get over with this." He grinned, shut his phone off and lead his team out of the changing room of the large communal gym to the playing fields.

He had had a good feeling about that day from the moment he had woken up. Somehow he could have told everyone with certainty that they would make it through the game, no matter how hard it would be and he had been right. Beating the snakes had not been easy, far from it! But they had managed and Kuroo felt even more proud than usually. His team was great.

16:05 Kuroo Tetsurou: MY TEAM IS GREAT!

It had taken him a while to type out the message. First they had to go and have a meal with everyone from the team before he had even thought of texting anyone. He had only turned his phone again after his third serving of food and after he had decided that he would wait a moment before he would go for a fourth round.

He sat back in his seat in the small room of the restaurant Nekoma's coaches had reserved for their after match meet up. Most food was gone from the tables and about half of the team had decided that it was indeed time for them to stop eating or at least to take a break. Kenma who sat next to him had stopped after his second helping and had played on his 3DS since. Taketora was still stuffing his face and Kuroo did understand a bit why Tsukki tended to be grossed out by the way most people ate. He had to smile at the thought of the disgusted face the blond would make if he would have had to join them and how his plate would have held less than half of the foodstuffs everyone else had loaded on theirs.

While wondering if Karasuno also had won their game – Tsukishima had not written him and Kenma did not answer his questions about if he had worked up the courage to write Yachi Hitoka to ask her about the game as his video game seemed rather intense – Kuroo stared out in space, letting out a content sight.

"Captain." Lev called him from three seats down on the other side of the table. "Kuroo-senpai!"

"What is it, Lev?" He smiled at his kouhai, who had grabbed his drink and stood up from his seat.

While making his way past the other team members he said: "There was something I had been meaning to ask you" and sat down right across from Kuroo as the seat had been vacated by who ever had had sat there before.

"And what could that be?" mused the black haired boy.

"Well… You see my Uncle and Aunt are looking for a tutor for my cousin. She's still in her first year of Middle School."

"And why would you ask me, if I wanted to be her tutor?" He raised an eyebrow.

"How do it put this…" Lev winked at him and gave him a very suspicious smile.

17:12 Tsukishima Kei: Are you drunk? You know legal drinking age is 20…

17:13 Tsukishima Kei: Not like you seem the type to care.

17:13 Kuroo Tetsurou: I'm drunk from luck – no need for alcohol! Someone found me a Hotaru. 3 My team is indeed the best!

* * *

Author's note: So for those who do not read the review section, koichii (on ao3) was so nice as to ask why Kuroo hasn't realized that Tsukishima writes his name with the kanji for Hotaru because they exchanged their line-info; as this is written in English, I can't really make the difference but this Tsukishima here wrote his first name in katakana instead of kanji, just for fun or maybe not to be teased about the kanji (guess how many people would tell him that he was not cute like firefly?). A lot of people do that (writing part of their name in katakana), some even just write their whole name in hiragana or refrain from writing their whole name all together as line is for private use.

And please don't mind the inconsistent use of "Tsukishima" and "Tsukki" or rather I would be curious to know if you think it was okay, like if you felt like there was a change in air depending on which name I used. So feel free to tell me if you liked it or not (or if you noticed at all).

Oh and don't trash me if the timeframe in this last part is not entirely correct. I admit I was lazy and didn't bother looking up if they ever mentioned when the match between Nekoma and Nohebi took place. I just made it match my own convenience and said they had the match the same day as Karasuno and Shiratorizawa and in the after noon… Sorry if I upset anyone! I'll try to be less lazy in the future!

Btw. Thanks to everyone who left a review! I appreciate it very much!


	7. Chapter 6,5: Special

Dear munchkin kittens and tortoises

So in celebration of my exams being finally over and today being a special day, I wrote you a special chapter for Bokuto and Akaashi. It's not much and it doesn't advance the story line so it's like an interlude I suppose? But I hope you like it anyway.

Have fun,

Jia ne

* * *

Ever since Akaashi had joined Fukurodani Bokuto had had his eyes on him. The black haired boy was not the friendliest person one could imagine and most people would probably have thought that Bokuto would just ignore him outside of club activities, but it was probably due to their character difference that Bokuto liked hanging out with him. Not that he got the chance to do so very often, Akaashi liked spending time with people who were not in the volleyball club with him and refused Bokuto's invitations on a regular basis. However, Bokuto was not one to give up very easily, especially not after he had found out how Akaashi's first name, Keiji, was written with the same characters that had appeared on Bokuto's left wrist after he had turned twelve years old.

The grey haired boy had known for longer than he could think that his partner would be a man, as he had never really had interest in women, but he had never imagined the Keiji who was meant for him to be like his _kouhai_. He had somehow thought that his Keiji would be someone older, someone who would not be afraid to take his hand and go on an adventure. Akaashi Keiji seemed nothing like that type. He seemed like the type to stop him from doing anything rash, someone who outbalanced his moods and would eventually make him face reality.

Sometimes when he was lying in his bed, he wondered if that was really what he wanted and if it was really worth pursuing this Keiji to find out if he was meant for him, as Akaashi steadily refused to reveal what was under the patch on his left wrist. The black haired boy had been very careful to not show the characters on his arm to anyone and even though Bokuto had asked every person possible, he had not been able to find out what was written there. Sometimes he doubted that even Akaashi's parents knew what kind of name was on their son's wrist.

Bokuto's parents on the other hand knew what their son's future partner's name was. They had not seemed all that pleased – at least Bokuto's father had frowned when learning that his oldest son would not carry on the family name – but they had accepted him and were rooting for him, though not actively helping with the search for his fated partner. Or maybe that was because he was still in high school and they thought that he should rather study than look for his partner. After all, he was still young.

Bokuto's siblings, his older sister and younger brother, also knew about the name as he also knew their partner's names. His sister's name was a bit ambiguous though much more likely to be a man's name than a woman's and his younger brother had a very common woman's name. Sometimes when staring out of the window and wondering if Akaashi really was the Keiji, Bokuto wondered if his brother had it much easier with that common name on his wrist and then he remembered that probably it was a lot more difficult to find the right partner if there were a lot of them with the same name, because who could possibly tell if one or the other was the right one?

After the summer volleyball camp with Nekoma, Shinzen, Ubugawa and Karasuno Bokuto had started to wonder if he should make a move on Akaashi. He was slowly but steadily running out of time and it would be better to know if Akaashi really was not his partner, because despite the better judgement of Bokuto's friends, he had fallen a tiny bit for his setter. The black haired boy was just too adorable not to fall in love with. He wasn't tall or very muscular but he had a certain grace and presence Bokuto liked and since he had started working with him more during practice and games, he had started to understand some of Akaashi's character which made him want to know him better – and maybe see him in a different light.

"But why does he not want to tell me who his soul mate is?" Bokuto complained to Kuroo as they were sitting in a Mister Donut one Saturday afternoon. They both had cram school at six and had agreed to meet up before to have a snack together and maybe talk about volleyball – though all that had been on Bokuto's mind had been the black haired setter.

"Maybe he doesn't trust you to keep his secret if the name should not be yours?" Kuroo suggested and took a sip from his coffee.

"But why is he hiding it anyway?" Bokuto tiled his head and took a bite from a doughnut. "Would it not be easier to be out in the open with it?"

"Not everyone is like you, you know." Kuroo grinned. "Just take a loot at Karasuno's 11, Tsukki, he too has a name on is wrist like yours and just cannot share it with others. Not even his best friend, that Yamaguchi-kid, knows the name."

"But you do?"

"Sure, I accidentally saw it." Kuroo grinned even wider.

"So, what name is it?"

"Tsukki will kill me if I tell you, so no way I'm letting anything slip."

"Aw, come on!" But no whining in the world would convince Kuroo to say it, so Bokuto gave up and instead asked Kuroo if he had some kind of idea how he could make Akaashi show him the name. They discussed some possible ways how he could make him or find out, but in the back of his mind Bokuto knew that they would probably not work.

He either had to really fall for Akaashi and prove his love to him to be allowed the privilege to see the wrist or give up and move on.

He sighed on his way home from cram school when he finally had time to think about the whole thing again. He had pushed the all thoughts aside as soon as he had come close to the cram school building as it was important to pay attention to the classes there, but now that he was on his way back, he could make his mind go in circles as much as he pleased – which was what he did. He let it wander to Akaashi and the question of whether or not the younger boy liked him as well and was just too shy to admit it or if he really did not have any feelings and was telling the truth when rejecting him.

But how would he be able to find out which of these options was true?

Maybe he should really corner Akaashi and force him to show him the name on his wrist. That would probably not strengthen their bond though. It would more likely convince Akaashi that he was indeed a selfish ass. Bokuto frowned. Maybe it was not good for him to obsess over whether or not Akaashi had his name on the wrist. Who said that one could only fall in love with the fated partner? What if they weren't a match, would that really change his feelings that much?

He looked up into the sky. The question would then be if Akaashi could be convinced to go out with him even when they were not meant for each other, when they were not a perfect match… He sighed. Why did this have to be so difficult?

It was at around nine o'clock when he reached home. He first put his bag in his room, then he headed to the bathroom to take a shower and before eating the food his mother had put aside for him. His brother and sister were sitting in the living room watching some variety show. As the dining room area and the living room were connected, Bokuto too could watch the telly from where he was sitting. Not that he particularly liked variety shows; actually he did not watch television all that often. Only when there was a specific drama featuring his favourite actor or if there was volleyball on he bothered sitting down on the sofa.

"So, _Nii-chan_ " His little brother had turned around from where he was sitting on the sofa as a commercial break had come on. "Is that Keiji – like the setter of your team I think? – still refusing to show you his name?"

Bokuto frowned. This was odd timing. "Yes… Why do you ask?"

"Oh, I was just wondering. I always thought you'd be faster in uncovering such things." Koutasuke shrugged.

"Hm." Bokuto rolled his eyes. "Please tell me about how easy it is to make someone else confess when you get to that point."

"Maybe you're just not hot enough to melt his cold defence away?"

"Don't get cocky, little brat."

Koutasuke laughed and turned back to the TV. Bokuto did not want to think about if his brother was right and still he thought about it when going to bed that night. What if Akaashi was not attracted to him?

He really did not like it when he thought about such things. Akaashi was always nice to him, treating him well… Of course he was like that to the other people in the team too. What was he thinking?

Bokuto sighed and reached down his pants willing his thoughts to stop thinking about Akaashi's feelings and concentrate solely on his appearance. He was quite good looking himself with the unruly mop of black hair, the gunmetal blue eyes and the not yet too muscular body. Bokuto had noticed at some point that Akaashi's hands were rather large; despite the boy being shorter than him he had bigger hands. Bokuto imagined those hands, which usually touched the volleyball in such a delicate but strong manner, wrap around his cock and massaging him by rubbing the foreskin up and down. He imagined those hands how they massaged his sack and roamed over his thighs, how they would coup his firm butt and how the meticulously cut nails would scratch ever so lightly over the hairy flesh.

He imagined how one of the long fingers would find its way between his arse cheeks and probe the hole with some lube. It would enter him meeting little resistance and he could almost hear Akaahi chuckle. He could see those blue eyes soften in their expression and be curious, the expression on Akaashi's face would be very unlike anything Bokuto had ever seen.

Sadness welled up in his chest. Oh, how he wished that the hand on his cock and the finger in his arse were not his own. How he wished that he would get through to Akaashi and be lucky enough to be his fated match.

He came while thinking about Akaashi pressing his own body close to Bokuto's. He imagined the two of them rubbing each other while their foreheads were touch and their eyes clouded from lust locked on to each other in an attempt not to miss the others boy's expression when he came.

* * *

Author's note:

So I named Bokuto Koutarou's little brother Koutasuke (小太輔), so „little" + „fat" (the same as the second kanji in Koutarou) + a very common name ending for male names; sorry for not being very inventive with the name but I wanted him to have a 3-kanji name that kind of reminded people of Koutarou's name.


	8. Chapter 7

_Chapter 7_

It had been a week since he had last heard from Tsukishima. He had sent him a message that read "congratulations" and nothing more.

Kuroo didn't mind it that much that he hadn't heard from the blond, as he had been rather busy since the match against Nohebi. It had struck him as odd from time to time that he hadn't heard from Tsukki, then again he seldom send him anything of his own accord and Kuroo just hadn't had the time to spare to bother him with line messages. Exams were drawing closer and club practice had been murder since they knew they would face off against the best teams from all over Japan.

Almost two weeks had passed since the last message when Kuroo had some time to spare. He sat with Kenma in a family restaurant after their practice and looked over some things concerning his duty as a team captain. He would have to hand over his post to a second year student soon enough and as was customary in Nekoma it was not entirely the coaches decision who would be the team leader.

"What do you think..?" Kuroo looked at his childhood friend, who was sitting opposite of him and playing on his smart phone. "I know you don't want to take over my duties, so that leaves Fukunaga Shouhei and Yamamoto Taketora from the starting players... Taketora would scare the shit out of the new first years, so the smart option would be to nominate Fukunaga. I'm pretty sure the coaches would agree." It almost seemed as if he was talking to himself as Kenma didn't really give any sign of that he was actually listening to him and Kuroo fixated the papers he had in front of him rather than looking at his companion. "Then again, Fukunaga doesn't really have the leadership skills needed to motivate the team when in a slump. Taketora would definitely kick ass if needed." He creased his forehead. "Am I overthinking things..?" He sighted and slumped back in his seat. He took his drink and slurped.

"Hm..." It was the first reaction from Kenma in a while.

A small smile formed on Kuroo's lips as he took out his own phone and typed a message. "You're not really helping, you know?"

19:40 Kuroo Tetsurou: hey, it's been a while. Doing fine? So, I'm wondering, what's your opinion on who should be the next captain of Nekoma? I'm soon retiring and Kenma isn't helping me pick someone.. T_T choices are Kenma, Fukunaga and Yamamoto.

He put his phone back in his bag, not expecting to get an immediate answer, and studied Kenma's face. He seemed a bit different from usual. Did he just blush? "Kenma, what's up?" This rather unexpected question prompted Kenma to actually look up from the small screen and raise an eyebrow at his friend. "Why are you blushing, would probably be the more accurate question."

It had been difficult to get the information out of Kenma, but Kuroo was not his best friend for no reason and so he sunk in his bed that night with a satisfied smile. The younger boy had confessed to him that he had acquired Yachi-san's line contact information thanks to the help of Hinata. To be accurate, Yachi-san had asked Hinata to ask Kenma a couple of questions about the preparation for the Spring Tournament as Kenma was the closest person she knew who could give her some advice on the matter as Shimizu-san had also no experience in preparing for a national event. Hinata, who seemed to know about Kenma's soul mate's name had asked him the questions but pretended to feel offended after Yachi-san had asked about three questions and said she should contact him herself and so he had send her Kenma's line contact file.

The first message from her had come the day before and Kenma had been flustered, but getting through the initial greeting wasn't all that difficult as it included a lot of set phrases. However, now that it was about writing her about this and that and answering her questions, he felt increasingly uncomfortable. Not that he did not like texting with her, Kuroo had read on Kenma's face that he was quite taken with the first year girl, but Kenma had this inherent wish to be seen as plain and normal and was scared that he would shatter this image.

However, Kuroo was convinced that everything would go well. Like everything would go well with Lev's cousin. She was a sweet girl and not at all like girls her age. At least that was the impression Kuroo had gained from meeting her once when he had been introduced by Lev to the parents of the girl to see if they would let him be her tutor.

Hotaru was small for her age, but had long dark hair as well as fine, curious eyes. She would definitely grow up to be a beautiful woman and Kuroo sincerely hoped her soul mark would turn out to be his name.

Tsukishima did not write back that day, neither did he the next day. Kuroo frowned when he looked at his phone a week later and noticed that his message had not been marked as "read". For a short moment he wondered if something might have happened to the tall blond, like a traffic accident and a cold shiver ran down his spine. What if...? But no, that was impossible. Such things only happened in films and such so he did not have to worry, it was more likely that Tsukishima had bought a new phone and the message had not been transferred and therefore not been read. He just had to write again and Tsukki would surely answer.

12:23 Kuroo Tetsurou: hei, what's up? Is everything all right?

He looked at his phone and waited for an answer. But none came. At least not for the ten minutes he spent looking at the line conversation. He sighted and put the phone away and soon forgot about his worries because he had a short test during one of his afternoon classes and it riled him up that he had not known all the answers. He was supposed to know them all, as he was also supposed to know all the relevant answers in the mock exam for the entrance exam for the University he was planning to attend, but somehow his mind wandered elsewhere.

He wasn't quite sure why he picked up his phone that evening and pushed the small phone shaped icon on the right top side on the line conversation he had with Tsukki, but he did and he waited patiently for his friend from Karasuno to pick up.

"Moshi, moshi. Kuroo-san?" He had picked up! Why should he not? What was with this feeling of relieve? "Moshi, moshi?" Hearing his voice was kind of nice.

"Tsukki!" Kuroo laughed. "How are you?" He felt incredibly happy.

"Fine. Why did you call?" Hearing his voice was nice. So nice… He felt giddy.

"Are you that busy?"

"Well... This is just the first time you called me, so..."

"You're right." Kuroo laughed. Why had they never called each other? Well, he didn't really phone anyone to be honest, but still, wasn't this weird? "It's weird isn't it...? But hey, so, I was wondering..." They talked for a while but somehow Kuroo forgot to ask why Tsukki had not replied to his messages. But what did it matter anyways?

That night, he saw Tsukishima in his dream. It felt like the first time he had seen him. He just stood there, tall, fair skinned and cold like he was. But Kuroo was happy nonetheless.

As time passed, Kuroo noticed that Tsukishima didn't reply as frequently to his line as he had used to and even phone calls didn't go through all the time. Being busy himself, he thought that maybe the blond middle blocker from Karasuno had a lot to do, especially with the preparations for the upcoming Volleyball tournament in Tokyo, but it was still odd somehow. It irked him that he had this little voice in the back of his mind telling him that he was being ignored.

"Have you heard from Yachi recently?" He asked Kenma one day in late December. The spring tournament was around the corner and Karasuno would soon come to Tokyo. So his question was in no way weird.

Kenma blushed slightly but nodded. "She asked if our team was doing alright, as the third years ought to concentrate on their studies because the centre shiken is right after the tournament."

Kuroo smiled happily and ruffled his friend's hair. It was great to see that he was doing well with the girl who was probably his soul mate. Thinking about it, it was rather surprising that Kenma had met her so early. If Kuroo was honest, he had always thought that the pudding head would not meet his fated partner – not to be mean or anything, but he was shy and he did not like meeting new people, especially not girls, so Kuroo had not had great hopes for him. "So did you show her your soul mark already?"

"No." Kenma fidgeted, blushing. "It would be sort of uncool if I told her that I think that she's my mate and she'd tell me that her name read something completely different…" Kuroo started laughing. "Like you're one to talk, I bet you wouldn't want such an awkward situation to happen to you" the pudding head said sulkily.

His friend was right. Kuroo had explicitly shown his mark to Hotaru yet as her mark had not appeared. He had also not told Hotaru about which school he had applied to. It would be embarrassing if he failed. It was really hard to act cool sometimes… Then again he had no intention to fail, so he had bragged about his choice to Tsukishima. However, he had not gotten any real answer to it. Which did bother him a bit, but what could he do if Tsukishima was not interested? Well, choosing a future career plan as still sort of far off for the blond middle blocker so of course he would not be all that interested in the future plans of other people. But it was also hard to imagine Tsukishima being interested in other people's future career plans when the time for him would come to choose.

Suddenly Kuroo found himself wondering what Tsukishima would choose to do in the future. He was mad about dinosaurs, so it would not be surprising of he would go into archaeology or palaeontology and at the same time these fields sounded like they would require too much effort and Tsukishima was not the type to put up with things that he deemed "bothersome", so he was more likely to take a path that was smoother. However, he'd choose something that would have prestige. Maybe law? He was smart and could win any argument if he set his mind to it, so it didn't seem that far off for him to be a lawyer. Or maybe he'd go for architecture. Was he good at maths? Well, he certainly knew how to calculate jumping speeds and such during volleyball matches, so maybe he did not suck at other formulas. Or maybe he'd just choose history or something and become a civil servant. That was a very easy path, as long as he got into a very good university. Maybe he should make him apply for the same university he tried to get into. It would be fun to have him as a kouhai.

Kuroo pursed his lips trying not to smile. How he'd like to have him around. Tsukishima did not seem like the type to stay in the Miyagi Prefecture, so he would probably come to Tokyo for university anyway, making him apply for the same place would not be that weird. Well, he'd see if it was worth a try to convince him when the time for Tsukki to decide about his future would have come. Before that he should better worry about his own future and make sure that he did get in his first choice.

With the tournament and his exams drawing closer, Kuroo had not had much opportunity to meet the young Hotaru and he had agreed with her family that he would start seriously tutoring her after his entrance exams were over, which would be at the beginning of February. However, Lev had promised that he would have his siblings bring their cousins to watch a match or two, so that he could meet her if only for a short time.

It turned out that Lev's siblings, twins named Sonya and Mischa aged fourteen, came to watch every game and made sure that Hotaru, as well as her ten year old sister Ageba, came with them. So every time they entered the gym, Lev would look up to the stands and wave at his relatives and make sure Kuroo saw them waving.

The three girls also came down to the corridor after every game to congratulate them on their victory. They shrieked and laughed whenever the sweaty half Russian boy tried to energetically hug them, only Ageba would let him clasp her in his arms eventually as she did not care all that much about the smell, plus she knew how much he cousin liked to hug people, despite having grown up in Japan.

Sonya and Hotaru would stand by. Sonya would make a disdainful face and tell her brother to stay the hell away, while Hotaru would shyly smile and walk over to Kuroo.

"You are truly amazing, Kuroo-sensei." The black haired girl had sparkles in her eyes when she spoke to her tutor after their third game. "It is very clear why you are the captain of this team."

Kuroo smiled, feeling very flattered. "Thank you very much, but you know, without this great team, I would not be standing here."

"You are so modest." She blushed when their eyes met. Oh she was cute; a very innocent, sweet girl. Unlike the tall blond boy who just passed them by together with his team clad in orange. He didn't even acknowledge them, focussed as he was on his mental preparation for his third game. "I hope your entrance exams go as smoothly as your progress in this tournament."

The blond and his team had walked through the double doors that lead into the gym. Only a red haired boy with a lot of energy and a blond girl had stayed in the corridor, chatting for a moment with Kenma. "Hinata! Get in here!" Kageyama had come back, grabbed his team mate at the collar and dragged him into the gym, while Yachi stayed behind. She would be sitting on the stands and cheer for her team together with some other people who had found their way form Miyagi Prefecture to Tokyo.

"Thanks." He smiled, unsure what to say. Usually he was smoother in such situations. From the corner of his eye he saw the old coach Nekomata approach the group. They were supposed to go back to the changing room and get a briefing before they could go and watch the other teams play. "Oh, we ought to go. We'll come up to the stands, so see you." He waved at her before telling the others to get a move on and apologizing to the coach before leading his team to the changing room.

The after match briefing didn't take that long and soon the boys were on their way to the stands, were they sat down in three groups so that all three matches that were currently being played were being watched by at least part of the team.

Kuroo and Kenma sat where they could watch Karasuno's match. They had joined Yachi and a tall blond man together with Lev and his relatives.

Kenma sat next to Yachi, who was rather fidgety. "You know, in the game against Shiratorizawa, Tsukishima was hurt and honestly, I'm still not over the shock. I hope it doesn't happen again – but then again, our team members are all so reckless, I'm always expecting them to get hurt" she explained while she slid back and fourth on the bench.

"They will be alright" said Kenma in a low but trust inspiring voice. Kuroo couldn't help but grin, his childhood friends was quite the reliable person now. He wondered why the two didn't date yet.

"Kuroo-san" Hotaru asked for his attention again and he turned his head, to signal that he was listening, even though he tried to look at the playing field where a tall blond boy just prepared himself to serve the ball.

It was hard to keep his mind on the conversation with Hotaru while watching Tsukishima play. His attention was constantly drawn back to the middle blocker. Of course only because he had to study Karasuno's playing style and because he knew that Tsukishima had grown to be the brain of the defence of his team, like Kageyama was the brain of the offence.

But his student was nice and understood that this was more important than her questions. She understood that Kuroo loved this sport and wanted to win the tournament. So she kept her blabbering at a minimum and instead turned to her cousin for a conversation after a while of silence.

He had never really had time to talk to anyone on Karasuno's team before they went back to Miyagi Prefecture and it kind of made him unhappy. It also irked him that none of the team's players really had tried to talk to him. Oh well, okay, Karasuno's captain had talked to him, as had the overly energetic Hinata and Kageyama had at least nodded while towering over the small redhead and Tanaka had asked him about the whereabouts of Taketora at some point. The tall, long haired third year he had met in the washroom once and they had exchanged friendly greetings, while the grey haired boy, Sugawara if he remembered correctly, had shot him a not so friendly, somehow concerned look and Freckles had asked him twice if he knew where Yachi had wandered off. It seemed that he knew that she was getting attached to Kenma, though their relationship was nothing official yet. Yes, but apart from those short encounters, no one of the team had talked to him. Oh, well, there had also been that one moment he had walked into a group of liberos talking together while he had been looking for Morisuke and Karasuno's libero had congratulated him on his team's latest win and then there had been that guy, one with black hair and dark eyes, he didn't remember his name that clearly but he was a second year, who had sat at the same table with him in the cafeteria during one of the breaks on the second day and they had discussed something or other with Bokuto and Akaashi. But that had really been all the interactions he had had with the orange clad team. He wished they would have had more time to interact.

He also wished Tsukishima would not be so bloody considerate of him having exams and text him some time or other. The tournament had been over a while and Kuroo still had not heard from him. He did text him after he had finished the centre shiken, telling him that he was finally freed from the burden.

Weirdly enough he did not get any reply. Neither did he get a reply when he tried to call him and it started to annoy Kuroo. He could not really concentrate on his new tutoring job or really enjoy his newfound freedom, knowing that Tsukishima was ignoring him. So when a month had passed since he had seen Tsukishima for the last time, he asked his parents of it would be okay to visit a friend he had made during one of the training camps in another prefecture for the weekend. They agreed under the condition that he would not go alone and not cause trouble, so he told Hotaru's parents that he could not tutor her on a certain Friday as he was going to Miyagi Prefecture with Kenma to meet Yachi.

He made his friend promise that he would make Yachi not tell the rest of Karasuno that they would visit. So they arranged to stay over at a hostel close to where Yachi lived and bough themselves tickets for the shinkansen to Sendai.

Yachi met them at the station after school and accompanied them to their hostel. They agreed to meet again the next morning so Yachi could guide them to school as the volleyball team had morning practice and after that they would spend the day sight seeing before taking the train back home.

Kuroo was not nervous that night when he tried to fall asleep. There was little reason to be nervous. He was probably just a bit troubled because this was his first trip alone. Thinking of the next day when he would meet the blond boy with the fierce eyes again made him giddy. He was really happy that he had asked his parents for the permission to go. And he was really happy that he had received the result from his entrance examinations in time so Tsukishima would be the first person to know where he would be going to university.

Kenma was awake unusually early the next day and seemed to put a bit more effort in his appearance. He blushed when Kuroo teased him about meeting his future mother in law – Yachi had told them that she would pick them up together with her mother. But he would not have needed to be nervous as it turned out that Yachi's mother had had to leave early and they were alone with the blond girl. However, his efforts did not go unnoticed. Yachi did not comment, but Kuroo saw in her expression that she recognized that something was different. She was probably just to shy to say something about it, thinking that it would embarrass Kenma.

They were silent most of the way to Karasuno as none of them really knew what they should talk about and Kenma was playing a game on his PSP as usual. Their arrival at the Karauno gym was met with astonishment and a lot of happy faces. Only one seemed not genuine and one was impassive as always, which made Kuroo smile even more. Some people just never change, he thought, but that was, what made him so cute.

Moshi, moshi means something like "speaking, speaking" and it's a quite polite version of the verb to speak/the call (t's the same verb as used in "XY to moushimasu" which is the polite way of saying "I'm XY" or so my teacher told me). It is used when picking up the phone like Italians pick up the phone by saying "pronto" (at least that is what they taught me in Italian classes).

Centre shiken (in Japanese: 大学入試センター試験 daigaku nyuushi sentaa shiken /in English: National Centre Test for University Admissions)is a test every Japanese high school student who wants to attend a public University has to take. It's a 2-day examination, which takes place in mid to late January. (An earlier version of this chapter I said it is "nyuushiki" - that was wrong, do not ask me where I got the "ki" ending for "shi", but thanks to nanasea this could be corrected.)

Ageha 蝶 (butterfly) is, in this reading, a male or female name. The kanji can also be read Chou or Hirari (according to name. /list?g=&s=) and is in those readings an exclusively female name.

Shinkansen = bullet train


	9. Chapter 8

Hey munchkin kittens, tortoises

So, sorry I'm a bit late with posting this but I was not at home most of the 10th and in an air-plane most of the 11th and came home exhausted as - and so went to bed at 8pm local time (with my jet lag it was around 3am though) but now I'm all good and so I post this 8th chapter.  
Be patient, it's going to be over soon.

Jia ne

* * *

Kuroo and Kenma agreed to participate in the practice session after Sawamura promised them that there would be a shower they could use afterwards, as neither of the boys from Tokyo wanted to smell for the rest of the day.

It was rather fun to be practicing with another team and Kuroo started to think of how it might be when he got into university. Because despite not pursuing a career as a professional player, he still wanted to continue on playing, so he was dead set on joining the team of his university and hopefully he would make it into the selected circle of starting players soon enough. He could not bear the thought of not playing in official matches after having been to the spring tournament.

He slung an arm around Tsukishima's neck and asked: "So where is that shower of yours?" Practice had ended a couple of minutes back and as they had finished putting away the equipment, so it was about time that they went to change clothes. Kuroo and Kenma had loaned out some sports clothes from the lost and found, which Yachi offered to wash for them and put back in the lost and found.

Tsukishima had tensed up, what made Kuroo raise an eyebrow, but he did not comment. "So?"

"Please follow, Sawamura-Senpai, he'll show you." The blond said coolly, freeing himself from Kuroo's arm.

"Why, do you not take a shower? I was counting on you showing us around in Sendai." Disappointment resonated in his voice.

"I have something to do today."

"Like what?" He tried to look into Tsukishima's eyes, but as the younger teen averted his gaze it was not possible.

"Family business."

"Come on, that can't be that important."

"Kuroo-san, are you coming?" Sawamura was calling him and Tsukishima suddenly disappeared. Kuroo was rather confused, but followed the former captain of the Karasuno team to the shower.

He hurried up with cleaning himself up, which turned out not to have been a bad idea, as he was just on time to catch Tsukishima exiting the clubroom. "So?" He asked him, smiling. But Tsukishima declined again, making the smile on Kuroo's face disappear. He grabbed the blond's hand and pulled him along to a spot where they could still be seen from the clubroom but not heard. "What's wrong with you?" The black haired middle blocker demanded to know in a low voice.

Tsukishima made a sour face. He replied flatly. "Nothing."

"You are lying." Kuroo stated and fixed his eyes in an attempt to find out what was going on in that beautiful mind. However, before Tsukishima could answer, a hand appeared on his shoulder and Sugawara obtruded from behind them. His smiling face framed by fluffy grey hair immediately rubbed Kuroo the wrong way.

"Are you alright?" The former vice captain asked friendly; the question being mostly directed at his kouhai despite his eyes being upon the face of the guest from Tokyo.

"Yes, we are just discussing something, so leave us alone." Kuroo growled but Sugawara seemed unimpressed.

"Tsukki, are you okay?" He asked once more.

"Yes, thank you." Tsukishima nodded. "You can leave us alone."

"Are you sure?" Kuroo started to wonder what the heck the problem of the grey haired teen was and wished him far, far, far away.

"It will only take a minute." Now Sugawara nodded. He shot Kuroo a warning look and went away again; not too far but still out of earshot.

Kuroo felt very irritated. "Is he your bodyguard or something?"

"What if he is?" Tsukishima looked at him with a sullen expression. "It's none of your business, Kuroo-san."

"What is wrong with you?" Kuroo looked into the golden brown eyes again, they were cold. "Here I have not heard from you for a month and especially come to see you and what do you do? You're being an asshole. I though we were friends."

"What gave you that impression?" Tsukishima had raised an eyebrow. "We haven't talked for a month and if it escaped your notice, I did my best to ignore you while we were in Tokyo. How thick, can one be?"

He had thought that little would shock him, but this did. This statement really hurt and he had not thought he would hear it. What had happened? "The fuck?" He said after a moment of silence where he had not been sure what to say. "So here I was worried about you and this is what I get?"

"I'm not sure what you expected." The blond snorted. "Did you think I would be dancing from happiness that you came _all the way_ up here just to see _me_?" He snickered. "Come on. Don't be delusional. What are you even wasting your time on me, should you not be home with your .Ru." The way he pronounced the name did not please Kuroo in the slightest. Something felt off, but he could still not tell what exactly. Why was Tsukishima so mad?

"Don't speak about her in that tone." Kuroo said, trying to hide his own anger. "She's a very nice girl. Smart and pretty..."

"I know, I've seen her stick to you like chewing gum on the sole of a shoe when you were in the corridor after your matches in Tokyo."

"She's Lev's cousin, so show some respect, would you?"

"What do I care?"

"Can you not be happy for me? Is it that?" Accusing him of jealousy was cheap, he knew it, but somehow Kuroo did not know what else to say. He was hurting from the things Tsukishima was saying. He seemed to be purposefully pushing him away and there was nothing he could do about it.

"Oh no." The blond stated flatly. "There's nothing to be jealous about. I was introduced to a Tetsurou, so you don't need to think about me anymore."

"What?" Something in his chest broke in two.

"Yes. Sugawara-Senpai's older brother's name is Tetsurou as well."

"Why haven't you told me?" What was that feeling? Why was he suddenly feeling empty?

"It's none of your business?" His eyes were cold as ice. "You've found your Hotaru so just go and be happy." Kuroo's eyes narrowed when Tsukishima added with clenched teeth: "And leave me alone."

Kuroo was about to punch the crap out of the tall blond middle blocker when he caught sight of Kenma who shot him a concerned glance. He wondered what kind of face he was making. It was probably not very nice, so he swallowed his anger, straightened himself up and said: "Well, if that is how you feel. Then I am sorry for worrying." Walked past him, whispering: "Good bye" as he made his way to his friend. As Tsukishima's face remained hidden from his view, as the blond did not turn around to face him a last time, he was not able to see the tears glistering in golden eyes. "Let's go", he said to Kenma who was standing next to Yachi.

Both of them exchanged glances but said nothing.

Kuroo's mood remained sour for the rest of the day and he did not recover form the trip to Sendai until he met Hotaru on Wednesday of the next week. His thoughts were constantly drawn to the blond middle blocker even though he had told himself that he would not waste any more time thinking about the git.

How could he have been so mistaken in a person?

Why had he not realized that he was no longer needed?

Well, it was probably because he was like a doting parent sometimes, if he was to believe Kenma. But what did Kenma know?

"Kuroo-sensei" Hotaru looked at him with concern. "You look scary today, are you all right?"

He tried to smile. "It's nothing. Let's just continue with the lesson."

Despite what he tried to tell himself, it was difficult not to think about Tsukishima. Probably because everything had happened so suddenly... Maybe he had shown signs of that he no longer needed him. Had he tried to tell him about that new guy? What if that Tetsurou was the jealous type? Maybe Tsukki had only tired to protect him… But there had been no need to be so rude about the business!

His anger lingered for about a month. Only when he started university was he able to block out the handsome blond boy and concentrate on other things, more important things like volleyball or his studies. However, as he got better at not thinking about him during the day he started to have more and frequent dreams about him, making him go almost crazy for half a year – but he refrained from reaching out to the boy who still lived in Miyagi Prefecture. Instead, he increased the time he spent with Hotaru and her family. He went to her house twice a week for tutoring and started asking her to hang out every other week. They usually went to the movies together with either her cousins, sometimes even Lev joined in, or going to amusement parks where her parents would not let her go if there was no person to supervise her.

A year had passed in the blink of an eye and the memories of Tsukishima Kei had faded, though whenever Kuroo was reminded of his existence, something hurt inside his chest. Ignoring those feelings as well as he could, he continued on living and felt very rewarded when he got an excited phone call from his student one day in the middle of late summer in his second year in University.

"Moshi, moshi?"

"Moshi, moshi, Kuroo-sensei?" Hotaru sounded very excited.

"Hey Hotaru-chan. What's up?"

"Kuroo-Sensei!" Hotaru exclaimed. "I could not wait to tell you, so I called you. I hope it is not inconvenient." She was so very thoughtful. "But I got my soul mark last night." He could she her eyes sparkle before his inner eye.

"Congratulations." He smiled at the phone, not knowing what else to say. Hotaru had turned fifteen two months before and had been very confused that she had still not gotten her soul mark. Every other girl in her class had had hers by now. "I'm looking forward to seeing it when I come over tomorrow."

"But, can we not meet today?"

Why would she want to meet him? "No. I have volleyball practice today. I'm sorry." It would be early enough to see it the day after. He was in no hurry to see the back kanji on her pale skin.

And when he saw the two characters that made up his own name, he was rather taken aback. He had seen these Kanji before on almost paler skin but a wider wrist. They had been covered by a plaster for so long, before chance had let him see them, and here they were offered to him on a silver plate. Memories crept up in the back of his mind and it took everything he had to suppress them. He should not spoil this moment by thinking of fierce golden eyes and short blond hair, an appearance so different from the figure he faced at the moment. Hotaru was still short in height, her hair perfectly straight and black like the night, her eyes large and naïve.

Something felt off when he looked at her.

There was no tingling; there were no butterflies in his stomach. He did not know what exactly it was, but he had always thought that it would feel a lot different when he would finally find his soul mate.


	10. Chapter 9

He was now in his third year at university. Which meant there was only one more year left as he had chosen a four-year college. Thinking about how he had to go job hunting soon made him sad. Then again, he had known that his life as a student would not last forever and some day he had to become a reliable member of society.

It was summer and volleyball season was still in full swing, making Kuroo have rather little time for other things. He had changed part time jobs as he needed to make a bit more money and the job behind the bar suited him more than being a tutor to a teenager, whose hormones were hindering her studies.

Kuroo had been a starting player for is university's volleyball team from the middle of his first year and was rather proud of that accomplishment. Now, he was the vice captain and enjoyed the time he could spend with his team. They were all very friendly and their coach had good connections with other schools, so they had a practice match with one school or another once a month.

One Sunday morning in July they were once more on their way to another school. They had been invited to play against the team of a university specializing in languages, whose campus was only four bus stops away from their university. Riding the public transport together with his teammates was fun, but also kind of bothersome, as the other passengers in the bus shot them annoyed glances. It was only a tiny bit inconvenient when one had around ten people with large gym bags board a small bus.

"You know, their team had some really good new recruits", said one of his teammates. "Apparently they were able to get one guy from Karasuno – you know, one of the seed teams from Miyagi Prefecture."

Kuroo grinned. Yeah, he knew Karasuno. It was nice to see that now they had again risen to be an important name in the world of volleyball.

"Kuroo-san, did you not say you've played Karasuno in your last year of high school?" One of his kouhai had asked and the black haired man nodded.

"Sure did." Still grinning widely. "They were an awesome team back then. Very refreshing to play against."

The kouhai's eyes lit up. "Well then we might have an interesting match today as well."

"I would not count on it, one player doesn't make a whole team. I mean, you would never say that this team here is to be compared to my old Nekoma, would you now? There are just too many people missing – though I'm pretty happy that Kenma joined me again." He grabbed his childhood friend and ruffled his hair.

"Please stop that, Kuroo." He was still the same unfazed small guy. "Do you know which of the Karasuno players is on that team?" He looked up to Kuroo who shook his head.

"I had not known they did have someone until just now. I suppose you do know which one it is."

"Yes. Hitoka told me back in spring who got accepted into which university." Kenma and Yachi's relationship was still going strong, though it had been a long distance affair for about four years now. They did see each other occasionally and modern technology helped them communicate, but it was still very impressive to Kuroo. Kenma and Yachi had discussed their plans for the future together and tried to include each other in their lives as often as possible. They had finally talked about their marks after having been in contact for two years and to no-one's surprise they had read each other's names. Since then, they had tried to figure out how this, as in their relationship and all, would work out for them. They had decided that both would stay in their home prefecture until they would have finished university and then Kenma would move to Miyagi and hopefully find work as an IT guy for some company.

Sometimes Kuroo wondered how long it would take the two to announce that they were getting married and wanted children. That thought let him smile every time it came to him. Kenma's kids would be so cute.

They wouldn't be all that tall, have dark brown hair and round faces with Yachi's eyes. They would be a little shy but friendly all the same. Unlike some other person who had grown up in Miyagi Prefecture, who was tall and blond and had golden eyes, which now stared at him in disbelieve. He had not changed much in the time Kuroo had not seen him, his hair was as short as ever, he was still wearing black rimmed glasses and the disbelieve was soon replaced by a resting bitch face.

"Tsukki! What a surprise!" Kuroo tried not to sound too fake. He was not ready for this. He did not want to pretend as if nothing had happened, but for the sake of a good practice match he was not allowed to let what had happened back then affect him.

"Kuroo-san." That was the entire greeting he got from Tsukishima as the first year was interrupted by a senpai who ordered him to help out with something while the guests assembled in a corner and put on their jerseys for the match.

Kuroo shot Kenma a glance, but the fake-blond just looked at the floor.

"Kuroo-san." Golden eyes looked at him as he shook the blond man's hand. "It was nice meeting you."

Kuroo's glance had flickered to the wrist a lot during the practice matches noting with satisfaction that the two kanji were still hidden from imploring eyes by a plaster. "It really was nice meeting you here – how about we hang out? I've got nothing to do, so mind showing me around campus?" What, wait, why? Was he a masochist? He was still angry with Tsukishima for treating him so badly. Why did he want to renew this grotesque friendship that had only brought him pain?

Tsukishima blinked, seemingly confused as to what he should answer. "Well… I guess… There is no reason to refuse. If you wait for me to clean up…"

"Sure thing. I'll be sitting outside." His team said their final greetings and then left the gym. While all his teammates made their way to the gate, he sat down under a tree waiting for the blond to come out as well.

This was weird, he thought. He wasn't usually driven by impulse, not like he had been right now. But something in his ear was tingling and he did not know why, but somehow that had made him ask Tsukishima to hang out. Maybe he should not carry his grudge that far. They both had grown up, so maybe it was about time to forget about the past and if their campuses were so close, they were bound to meet by chance again, so the only right thing to do was to patch things up.

It took about twenty minutes until the blond middle blocker came out of the gym, smelling of soap and looking a lot less sweaty than Kuroo felt. The afternoon heat had not helped him cool down one bit.

"I'm sorry for the wait."

Kuroo got up from where he was sitting and they started walking over the campus. It was a rather small university and there wasn't much to see, so they ended up going to the cafeteria.

"I'll pay for what you're having" Tsukishima said as he put his cafeteria card on the tray next to the cup of coffee he had let out of the coffee machine.

"Thanks." Kuroo put his cup and a small snack on the tray and followed his – friend to the cash register. They proceeded to take a seat at a table that only had two chairs around it. Tsukishima put the tray down and walked away to get some sugar as he had forgotten to take any when they had been at the register.

Kuroo sat down and took the cups from the tray, arranging them on the table. It was then when he noticed Tsukishima's cafeteria card. It looked very different from the one from his university, so he picked it up and looked at it. There was a photograph of Tsukishima in black and white on the right side and the name of the university on the left. Under the logo there was the date of issue of the card as well as the owners name and birthdate.

There was the name. Tsukishima Kei. 月島蛍. _Tsukishima Hotaru_.

Kuroo blinked and looked at his own wrist. 蛍. Then he looked at the card again. 蛍.

It was the same. There was no mistaking it.

"Mind giving me my card back?" He looked up into golden eyes, an impassive face.

He blinked again and gave the card back. "You write your name with 'hotaru'?" He asked confused, still not sure if his eyes were playing tricks on him.

Tsukishima nodded. "Speaking of which. How is she doing, your small Hotaru-chan?"

"No" Kuroo rudely interrupted him "wait a second. This" he pointed to his wrist "was the same as your name all along?"

Tsukishima shrugged. "So what?" He sat down in the chair, crossing his legs. "I've heard from Lev that his cousin Hotaru-chan had your name on her wrist too. Congratulations."

This was such a bizarre situation. A strange warmth spread through his chest the moment he recognized Tsukishima's name for what it was and the tingling in his ear stopped. Everything seemed so crystal clear, why did the other man insist on talking about someone else? "He probably didn't tell you, but we aren't together anymore. Despite the names matching we weren't meant for one another. Not really." He scanned the other man's face, trying to figure out what he was feeling. "I'd rather say that I met my Hotaru way before, but was robbed of my chance to be happy because someone decided to keep important information from me." Tsukishima raised an eyebrow but kept silent. There was something mocking in his eyes. "Have you never thought that _we_ were meant to be?" Kuroo still did not get an answer. "I know you must have, because I just feel it right now. I feel that we are meant to be and that was why I never got over our fight four years ago. I have been thinking of you ever since, not knowing exactly why I was so hung up about you – _but us being soul mates makes everything clear now._ " Kuroo's eyes sparkled while Tsukishima looked grim.

"Your delusions have not been cured, I see." He sipped on his coffee.

But Kuroo detected a faint hue of red on his cheeks. "Leave that brother of your senpai and be with me. You must feel it too – that we are meant for one another. There's probably another Kei or Hotaru for that guy out there too."

Tsukishima clicked his tongue. "And suddenly you are so confident."

"Ah come on, don't play the tsundere and admit that I have been on your mind ever since we met back then in high school." Kuroo had raised his voice unable to contain his anger. He was angry with himself for not noticing, but also angry with Tsukishima because he had obviously deceived him! But why, he wondered. However, now was not the time to contemplate such difficult questions, he had to make him his now or he would lose him again, that, he was sure of. So he stood up and walked over to Tsukishima's chair. "Let's discuss this somewhere less public. I'm sure you don't want the whole campus to know about..." He trailed off, not knowing if he could say 'us' yet. He offered Tsukishima a hand, but the blond stubbornly stayed seated.

"Drink your coffee first, if you please," He said slightly annoyed. "I paid for it, so please don't make my money go to waste."

"Only if you promise not to run away this time."

"I promise."

* * *

Dear tortoises and munchkin kittens

I know, this chapter was short - but it was just so perfect to end on this note. Look forward to the next chapter when Tsukki is finally taking the POV back. :D

Until next month then, Jia ne


	11. Chapter 10

**"I** promise." The words had left his mouth before he realized what he had said and how he had said it. His voice had been soft, accommodating, very much in contrast to his body language or the way he had spoken just half a minute ago. He had tried to reject Kuroo-san, to get him to abandon the topic and to leave him alone – because nothing good would come out of this conversation, he was sure of it.

Tsukishima had wondered how he could make Kuroo-san believe him that this was all just in his own head and that the match was not reality.

But apparently Kuroo-san was not to be convinced. Maybe this was payback for what had happened four years ago; when it had almost been too easy to convince him that the character on his wrist was someone else's name. Tsukishima had wondered for a long time why Kuroo-san had never found out that 蛍 could be a boy's name as well at the time. And that time when he had specifically come up to Sendai to meet him and discuss his silence, Tsukishima had first thought that he had finally found out and that he needed to make up something to push him away.

He had decided to not let himself think about his match being Kuroo-san after Karasuno had qualified for the national tournament. At that point he had finally understood that it was indeed possible for the black haired boy to love women – otherwise Kuroo would not have been so over the moon upon discovering that someone could introduce him to a Hotaru-chan. Tsukishima had then decided that it would be selfish to stand between Kuroo-san and an ordinary type of happiness.

Tsukishima did not care that most people were more open-minded nowadays and tolerated homosexual couples based on the fact that their soul marks matched; otherwise he would not have kept his mark hidden. He minded that Kuroo-san seemed the type to want to impress his partner and provide for them and Tsukishima just couldn't see himself in the role of the weak little wife. Maybe he liked Kuroo-san when he boasted and maybe he did not mind being spoiled, but that was only on special occasions. He was his own person and he wanted to stand on his own two feet, impressing and spoiling his partner occasionally. It also bothered him that he could not bear any Kuroo-san children, which he thought would be very hard on the black haired guy as well. Kuroo-san seemed fond of the idea of becoming a father one day. However, Tsukishima did not care for children. Even if he had been born a girl he doubted that he would have wanted to bear anyone's child. Children were just such nuisances…

So sitting opposite the one person he had sworn to give up on and being declared his match by said person was not very comfortable. However, he did not seem capable of defying him any longer at this point, otherwise his mouth would not have spoken without his brain's consent. Maybe it was time to face him head on. Running away had proven to only be a temporary solution anyway.

Yes, he had run away. He admitted that. And maybe it was time to admit, that he liked Kuroo-san. How could he not face that fact now that it was staring him in the face? He always had. And he subconsciously had sabotaged his own escape because of that.

He had chosen a field of study based on a suggestion made by his homeroom teacher who had told him that with his excellent grades in English and modern Japanese he was quite suited to be a translator. Hence, he had applied for two Universities with decent reputations concerning translation. One of them just happened to be in Tokyo, though he had thought of going to another city, just to reduce the risk of running into Kuroo... However, it would have been stupid not to choose the best option just because of a minor risk. Especially as he had known that there was a possibility he would have to meet Kuroo again at some point in his life.

He had run into Kozume Kenma every so often since the fake-blond had started meeting Yachi and Tsukishima himself had started to be considered a "good friend" by the not very tall girl after they had ended up in the same class during second year. He was almost sure that he would have to go to her wedding ceremony (which seemed very likely to happen) and Kuroo would be there too. So he had started to prepare his heart for that moment, hoping against hope that Kuroo would already be married by then with children of his own.

The training camps with Nekoma and Fukuroudani were also a reminder of Kuroo. Seeing Akaashi and Lev during his second year but not running into the tall, black haired boy with the smile he loved so much, made something in his chest tighten. It was a rather good thing that Lev was oblivious to his surroundings and meant no harm when bringing up their special training from the year before and letting two first years join them for their current special training session.

Akaashi, however, was different. It did not come as much of a shock to Tsukishima that Akaashi seemed aware of what was up with the patch on Tsukishima's wrist – considering that he too wore a patch, it was quite easy for him to guess – but he was in no way as nice as Sugawara. While being understanding to a certain degree about the fact that Tsukishima had wanted to avoid being favoured by Kuroo, Akaashi did find it confusing upon learning that Tsukishima had cut Kuroo from his life entirely. And so the black haired boy brought up the subject of Kuroo, soul marks and good fortune on purpose at least twice during the first training camp in which the former captain of Nekoma had been missing.

Tsukishima had not understood what exactly had been the older boy's objective and had tried to shut him up by casually mentioning that he was no better for refusing Bokuto. However, Akaashi only showed him a sad expression and said: "You don't know how lucky you actually were..."

It had confused Tsukishima at the time to hear such a thing and he had not really understood what Akaashi had been getting at, but what did it matter? Akaashi's soul mate was none of his business.

During his second and third year in high school he had kept in touch with Sugawara-senpai. He had been the only person outside his year who Tsukishima had bothered with, partly because Sugawara-senpai had made him confess most of what had been going on between him and Kuroo and partly because the grey haired boy was persistent in scheduling meetings between them. He had gotten into a technical college in Sendai and therefore had not needed to go out of his way to meet with Tsukishima. Despite having helped him get rid of Kuroo, his senpai had told him at some point that maybe he had not done the right thing.

And maybe, maybe he had been right, Tsukishima thought while looking into Kuroo's dark eyes. He once again got lost in those beautiful orbs, thinking how nice it was to be reflected there and nowhere else.

But how could he impose himself on Kuroo's future like that? "Are you sure you don't want me to run away?" He wanted to face palm himself. Why didn't his brain have any control over his mouth anymore?

"You are my soul mate, I will chase you even if you run again." Kuroo had a stern expression, lips tightly closed and eyebrows narrow.

Tsukishima took the coffee cups and the garbage left from their snacks. It was time to leave and let Kuroo take him home. So the blond went to put away the tray while leaving his bag at the table to reassure the older man that he would return.

Kuroo followed him with his eyes, Tsukishima knew it without actually seeing it. He felt the hot gaze on his back. It was sort of a familiar feeling and somehow, he did not know why, it made him feel safe. He instantly had the feeling that Kuroo would not let him go and for some odd reason it did not scare him.

* * *

 **T** he trip to Kuroo's place was a bit awkward because the dark haired man had insisted on Tsukishima calling the other Tetsurou and breaking it off with him. Tsukishima had tried to explain that there was no and had never been any other Tetsurou, but maybe it was karma that Kuroo wasn't easily convinced.

"I swear" Tsukishima said once again when he stepped through the door into Kuroo's home. "There is no-" but soft lips that pressed onto his interrupted him. Kuroo backed him into a wall, assaulting his mouth with gentle strength.

Tsukishima had thought they would give each other a bit more time, but let Kuroo do as he pleased, it just felt too right... He sighed into the kiss, wrapping his arms around Kuroo's neck. There they stood in the entrance snogging the living daylights out of one another.

Kuroo's lips were gentle and the inside of his mouth tasted so good... Tsukishima's head went blank except for one thought… " _stupid_ ".

They remained in that position for a while before Kuroo pulled back, leaving Tsukishima's lips slightly swollen.

Both men took a deep breath. Their gazes locked. "I believe you" whispered Kuroo and turned around.

Tsukishima blushed a bit, suddenly feeling embarrassed. He took off his shoes and followed Kuroo into the next room, which was the bedroom. He blushed a bit more when he realized that Kuroo had taken off his shirt. "This... Um.." The blond stuttered. Not sure how to say that Kuroo was moving too fast, that he did not need to go this far to make Tsukishima his…

Kuroo grinned and approached him again while taking off his shorts. He kissed him again passionately. "Don't be afraid" he murmured seductively into his ear and Tsukishima knew he would be fine with whatever Kuroo would do to him. "I don't plan on doing anything. Just taking a quick shower, so take a seat and make yourself at home." He chuckled, gave him a peck on his cheek and left the room.

Tsukishima's heart was racing. His legs were jelly. He took two steps and sunk down on the bed. How..? He was confused. How had his feelings changed so fast?

Good thing Kuroo was able to keep his cool and not rush things. They should be taking it slow, Tsukishima thought and looked around the room. It was a typical student's room. There was a bed, a desk with a chair, a wardrobe. There was a calendar on the wall, a couple of volleyball related posters and notes, his old Nekoma volleyball uniform hung behind the door. There were dirty clothes on the floor; not just the shirt and shorts Kuroo had taken off moments before, and some papers, a book or two. It was a room that suited Kuroo. Tsukishima instantly felt at home. He wondered if that was the soul marks effect. If yes, then it was rather scary.

The blond sat upright on the bed, trying to have his heart regain a normal pace.

Time ticked by slowly.

Tsukishima heard the shower stop. He had not noticed when the water had started running, but now he was hyper aware of the fact that it had stopped. He heard the bathroom door open, a prickling sensation ran down his skin. Shortly after, Kuroo entered the room, wearing only a bath towel around the hip.

Warmth spread through Tsukishima's cheeks. He was sure that he was red faced once again. Why did his brain need to remind him right now of the bath times from back during the training camp? He looked away, grabbing the next best thing from the floor to distract himself. From the corner of his eye he saw Kuroo smirk. "Don't," Tsukishima hissed, while looking at the backside of one of Kuroo's notes, "even think about."

The black haired man put on underwear and fresh shorts, leaving the shirt off. He sat down next to Tsukishima, snuggling up to him. He kissed Tsukishima's neck, caressing his nape with his hand. How could this feel so right? Tsukishima cursed himself, feeling as if his body was betraying all his former effort of pushing Kuroo away. He knew he was done for; he would never be able to give up on Kuroo anymore.

He turned his head and shoved Kuroo's head away from his neck so that he could lay his lips on the other man's. They melted into a sweet kiss. Kuroo gently ran his hand through the blond hair, while Tsukishima tried to position his body in a way that made making out more comfortable. He wondered how something could just feel so...

Kuroo tasted good. He tasted better than anyone Tsukishima had ever kissed. He had kissed before, a couple of times actually. Just because he had avoided his soul mate it did not mean that he had not had certain… bodily urges. He hadn't gone wild like the others did in the first months of living alone, but still Tokyo's infamous 2chome wasn't that far away anymore and Tsukishima had gone there and done some things... From those outings he knew that logic dictated that he and Kuroo should wait before going to bed together. However, logic did not know how good this felt. Logic did not know that this was meant to be...

Their lips parted once more. They opened their eyelids, gazing into each other's eyes, which where clouded from lust. The two men stayed seated on the bed for a moment.

"Will you stay?" Kuroo asked almost bashfully.

Tsukishima wanted to resist but couldn't find it in him so he just nodded. "As long as you'll have me" he thought and a sigh escaped his lips. He read a question in Kuroo's dark eyes. "How do..."

"You deserve me?" Kuroo snickered and kissed him again. "I don't know, but I've also been wondering for a while now…. How I deserve someone like _you_? I suppose we're evenly matched then."

Tsukishima rolled his eyes leaning in for another kiss.

* * *

Author's note:

A hearty hello to my munchkin kittens and tortoises

Sorry, I had planned that this would be the last chapter, but for some reason I didn't find it in me to let them hop into bed together - it would just not have been right, so you get an extra chapter with some KurooTsuki smut and another extra chapter from the POV of Yachi (which was a planned extra chapter thought) and then you should all look out for my BokuAka sequel which I will publish some time. I've decided that they get a whole fic rather than just another extra chapter in this story here.

And many thanks to my Beta LilyPhantomhive01! (Trust me, this chapter was a lot more confusing before Lily stepped in...)

Thanks for reading.

Jia ne.


	12. Chapter 11

Kei left Tetsurou's apartment early in the morning the following day.

He had to go home to his own place to get his stuff for classes before going to University. They hadn't had sex the previous night and Kei was still glad about it. It did not mean that he and Tetsurou hadn't made out or explored each other's body, but they had drawn the line at showing each other their erect member.

It came as a relief to Kei that Tetsurou was a bit shy, despite the endless teasing kisses and his possessive cuddling habits. Being soul mates — with a certain emphasis on mates — did not mean that they had to do everything lovers did at once. Considering that Tetsurou had, until a day before, never consciously thought about kissing another man, it was only expected that they took things slow. Kei could understand, that his boyfriend could not just plunge into the unknown.

Tetsurou explained it to his mate the previous night in the following way: he, Tetsurou, did have the feeling that he was okay with a male body being pressed against his and he would get used to the thought of having someone enter him or enter someone who had only one and not two holes, but he needed some time. Kei had sighed, happy that there wasn't any pressure that night, but he also felt a tiny pang of regret. He had dreamt about being with his Tetsurou so many times that he did want to be with him in all possible ways.

Now, the day after, Kei went to University like he normally did. After classes were finished, he went to his part time job and headed home afterwards, only to find Tetsurou waiting for him in front of his door. It was weird and awkward at first. A week later, Kei wondered how they both had suddenly started to see each other every day. It was like with a car that accelerated from 0 to 100km/h in seconds. There was no time to get used to the idea that he and Tetsurou would join together in a different way now.

It seemed that his soul mate made the conscious decision to not waste any more time.

Tetsurou wanted to get to know him and take their relationship seriously. Within half a year they moved in together, despite the incertitude that came with job-hunting for Tetsurou since he started his fourth year.

Their flat wasn't big, two rooms, a kitchen and a bath. They put a bed in both rooms, though they did agree on only using one. One bed was in the bedroom and one in the room they used as a living room. However, if someone came over, they would say that it was Tetsurou's room. This way, those who did not know about their relationship would not necessarily find out. It was Kenma's idea when Testurou complained to him that Kei was against a shared bedroom, because he was scared of what people might think.

Kei was not happy that Tetsurou told anyone who had the guts to ask that they were a match, but it could not be helped in some cases. Being the type to share everything with his best friend, Tetsurou told Kenma about what had happened after the practice match in great detail. Kenma had then told Yachi, who had a slip of the tongue when meeting Hinata and so Kei was quite sure that his former high school volleyball team was informed about them.

It was only reluctantly that he texted Yamaguchi and Sugawara-senpai himself. He felt that he owed them the courtesy of telling them directly, rather than having them find out in a roundabout way. But they were the only people he told. He didn't think it was any of his University friends' business and he would certainly not tell his family — yet.

Tetsurou agreed that they did not need to tell their families. They would be better off strengthening their relationship so that they could withstand any opposition they might face. Kei had rolled his eyes, when Tetsurou verbally painted the picture of their love becoming some sort of Romeo and Juliet story.

Kei knew that his family suspected something, but still treated him normally. He didn't fear that he would become an outcast and as he did not know his soul mate's family yet, he didn't care about whether they accepted him or not.

* * *

The blond man sighed and pushed down the door handle to the apartment. "I'm home," he said hardly loud enough to be heard; however, he did get an answer.

"Keeei?" He heard Tetsurou's voice from the bathroom. "I'm running a bath, can you check if the lasagne is ready yet?"

A silent smile crept up his face. Perks of living with Tetsurou: there was usually food. He didn't look like it, but the black haired volleyball player wasn't bad in the kitchen — and certainly not bad in bed... Kei smirked thinking of the naked apron act his lover had put on for him just recently.

It took Tetsurou about two months to get accustomed to the idea of doing things beyond kissing and light touching with Kei. Or maybe he would have taken even longer, if the blond middle blocker hadn't thought of entering the shower with him once when they still were living in separate places. Tetsurou had laughed and said he felt taken back to the training camps. Kei answered with a smirk and had said that he would make him forget that soon enough. He subsequently had gone down on him.

It was a glorious experience; the look on Tetsurou's face, his gasps when his knees had weakened as Kei's tongue had flicked around his hardening member, the way Tetsurou had to steady himself on the bathtub in order not to fall... He had tilted his head back, flipping his sexy wet hair, and groaned, incapable of doing anything except for bucking up his hip.

Kei had tasted him and was satisfied with what he'd received. After that little push, Tetsurou was not so shy anymore. One day, soon after he was given head in the shower, he had come over to Kei's place with a black plastic bag from a drug store. They had experimented a lot that night. After that, neither man's behind was virginal any more, but there were no complaints.

 _There were never any complaints_ , Kei snickered to himself and looked at the lasagne in the oven. "I think it's finished," he said loud enough to be heard in the bathroom.

"What does the timer say?"

"Hm..." Kei looked around. "Another three minutes."

"Mind setting the table?"

Kei turned away from the oven and started taking out plates, cutlery, and whatever else was needed. He put everything on the table, even napkins, knowing that Tetsurou would appreciate the thought. He sat down on his chair and took a book from his bag. Exams were coming up and he had to study whenever he had time.

The timer went off shortly after and Tetsurou ran into the kitchen, turning the 'damn thing' off and then turned the temperature of the oven to 50°C. He returned to the bathroom to turn off the tap and put the cover on the tub so that they could take a bath after dinner.

The dark haired man frowned when he put the food on the table and Kei put his book on the edge of the table, continuing to read. Tetsurou cleared his throat, like he always did when Kei did something he disapproved of.

The blond innocently looked up at him. "Yes, Mom?"

Tetsurou rolled his eyes. "Please, can we talk while we eat?"

"Sure." Kei sat up straight.

"Close it..." Tetsurou sighed, knowing by now that Kei was only teasing him. Sure enough the blond closed the book and put it back into his bag.

It was later that night, after they both took a bath and were lying in the comfortable double bed while cuddling that Tetsurou brought the topic of job-hunting up. "You know that place I applied for, the one where I would have to spend a year in Sapporo?"

"Yeah?"

"I think that's the company I would really want to get into… Would you be very sad if I was gone for a year?"

Kei smirked in the dark and pulled Tetsurou, who was hugging him from behind, even closer. "I don't care if you go to Sapporo for a year or if you go to the moon for a year, you know that." He heard Tetsurou inhale sharply. Kei chuckled. "You know how I mean it. I will be there for you. I will wait, no matter what. So just pursue the path you want to take, like I'll take the path I want to take."

"But if I'm gone for a year, will you not be lonely?" Tetsurou whispered into his ear. A pleasant shiver ran down Kei's spine.

"Maybe a little," he confessed and turned his head so that his lips could meet those of his soul mate. It was an innocent kiss, short and soft. "But I know you'll come back to me, so it doesn't matter."

"Sometimes you're so cheesy, I can hardly believe that the sharp tongued boy with the black rimmed glasses is the same guy as you." Tetsurou chuckled, stroking Kei's cheek and kissing him a bit more passionately.

Kei returned the kiss, unwilling to say anything on that topic. He knew that he was still a bit too cold towards Tetsurou, too calculating, and too aloof at times, but he tried his best to make up for that by showing his lover how much he cared when they were in bed. He turned his whole body around and rolled on top of Tetsurou, pinning his arms down and ravishing his mouth.

"You want to be ridden today?" He took off his nightshirt and ground his hips. He straddled the man, so he casually rubbed his penis against the other man's while moving his lower body.

The black haired man moaned. "If you are in the mood," he kissed him gently and started to open the buttons on his pyjama shirt. "Then please," he purred.

Kei fondled the now bare chest of his beloved. He pinched him here and there and coaxed Tetsurou into moaning by lowering his mouth down on his nipples and nibbling at them with his teeth.

Tetsurou let his hands run through the short blond hair of his soul mate, who was sitting on top of him, still grinding his hips and creating friction between their lower halves. Tetsurou continued to moan as Kei worked his way down the chest, as far as he could go without having to get off the other man. And then Tetsurou sucked in air when the weight on his lower half shifted, his pyjamas were abruptly removed and his semi-hard penis was greeted by cold air.

Kei smirked when he saw Tetsurou's reaction. He wiggled out of his own pants, palming himself while nudging at his lover's penis, and planted feather light kisses on it and starting to lick it.

Tetsurou looked down, his head slightly elevated by the pillow. His eyes were half closed and his mouth was parted as moans dropped from it. "You're just too good at this…" He murmured, stroking Kei's head. "But… I want you… Don't you… too?"

"Hand me the lube.'" Kei did not want to waste more time and so he started to finger himself instead of palming his penis. His black haired lover stretched himself to reach the night stand in which they stored their lube.

"Which one?"

"Any is fine," Kei groaned. He rolled his eyes at his soul mates insistence on always being the gentleman and ask him which one he preferred when they did it. He looked up right in time when Tetsurou threw him the light purple lube bottle.

"Condoms?" Tetsurou asked.

"It's fine."

"You sure?"

"Sure."

"But you already took a shower."

Kei sat up to peer down at his lover with some authority.

"Shut up, will you?" He said in a tone that was annoyed, but amused at the same time. He planted a kiss on Tetsurou's lips, whispering, "just don't come inside."

"Sure." Tetsurou smiled, taking Kei's head in both hands and ravishing his mouth. He only let him go when Kei forcefully took one of his hands and guided it towards his penis. He had straddled him once again and hovered over Tetsurou's erection.

Tetsurou stretched the blond, watching as the fingers entered him. He noticed how Kei's eyes rolled to the back of his head. A moan left the sweet, pink lips of the blond haired middle blocker.

"Ready," Kei moaned in pleasure and lowered himself onto Tetsurou.

The black haired man sighed when his stiff member was swallowed by his lover's tight and slick ass.

Kei took his time riding Tetsurou, not in the mood to rush things. It felt so good having him inside. It felt good to feel his hands on his hips that helped him guide his own movements. It felt good to hear the low moans he drew out of Tetsurou by raising and lowering his behind and creating even more friction than with just going back and forth.

It took a while before both were close to coming. Tetsurou savoured every movement of his lover, helping him by rolling his hips. When he was about to come, he tightened his grip on Kei's hips and started to slam into him. A deep moan left Tetsurou's lips. He buckled, tore his penis out of the warm hole and spilled over his own stomach. He reached up to Kei's face and guided his mouth towards his own. He let his tongue slip into Kei's mouth and coaxed him to climax.

Kei felt refreshed, despite being sticky after collapsing onto Tetsurou's stomach, which was now covered in both of their cum. Kei had been tense the last few days and now, he felt relaxed. Happy, he curled himself up while Tetsurou threw away the tissue paper he had used to clean them both with. When Tetsurou got back into bed, Kei opened his arms wide to embrace his lover and they fell asleep cuddling.

* * *

Author's note:

Okay, two things I need to apologize for:

1\. being late with the update, I am soooo sorry! But I had exams and Christmas and such and OMG I am so sorry!

2\. I know that was now more fluff than smut… At least I think it is quite fluffy! And very little smutty…. But anyway, I felt like it would be really forced to put in a large smut scene and I actually just wanted people to get some more closure on this story. If you want more smut then read another one of my stories, though I think I never have great smut scenes? I'm not yet very proficient in writing porn, gomennasai.

I hope you like the extra chapter.

Jia ne

PS: The extra will follow soon!


	13. Chapter 11,5: Special

The concept of having a soul mate puzzled Yachi Hitoka for most of her childhood, as her mother openly confessed that Hitoka's father's name did not match the name on her wrist. So Hitoka grew up, wondering whether society was right and her mother was wrong or if it was the other way around. Of course, there was no rule that one's soul mate had to be one's destined partner in romance, _but how could it be wrong to think that? And how could it be so frowned upon if one did not think like that?_ Even as a small child, Hitoka noticed that some people looked at her mother differently for openly admitting that her soul mark read her daughter's name and not her partner's…

When Hitoka was in her second year of middle school, the mark on her own wrist had appeared and she had gone to her mother to show it. "Mother, look!" She had said with sparkly eyes. "It says **研磨** **(** Kenma – polish/study hard)."

Her mother smirked, stroked her head and said, "good for you. I hope you'll find a person that lives up to that." And after a moment she had added, "or maybe it means you ought to put effort into the things you do."

Hitoka was neither surprised by her mother's reaction when her mark had appeared. Nor was she surprised when her mother wasn't all that enthusiastic when she told her that the matching boy had.

Of course, Hitoka hat told her mother about Kenma after she had met him during her first training camp with the volleyball club in high school. And of course she would have appreciated a little bit of encouragement from her mother's side, but she was so used to her mother's attitude that she had not minded it.

Now, all these years later, Hitoka could only smile at the memory of her mother giving her a stern look and telling her that she better be careful, because not everyone was the way they appeared. However, despite the discouraging words, her mother never tried to persuade her to change the path she had chosen for herself. Her mother never said to Hitoka that she made a mistake or that she was not allowed to be in contact with that boy who might or might not be her soul mate. She only cautioned her about the future and when Hitoka told her that the boy indeed could be her soul mate, because he had her name on his wrist, she was happy for her.

Getting together with Kenma was not easy, to be honest. As both of them were awkward with strangers, they needed a lot of help from their friends. Hitoka was still not sure if she was grateful to Hinata for helping her get in contact with Kenma or if she should resent him for blatantly lying to her by pretending that he was annoyed to be made the go-between of the two.

Well, at least everything turned out all right. Or so Hitoka thought, otherwise she would not have woken up exhausted after sleeping six hours in a hospital bed. She had given birth.

She sat up in her hospital bed and a smile formed on her face when she saw her husband, Kenma, sleeping on the chair next to her. He had refused to leave even after she came out of the birth room, thinking that she would feel insecure waking up in a room all on her own. He had not entered the room where she had struggled to push the new life out of her body, as he would have panicked seeing her suffer so much. So she let him stay outside, having her mother by her side was good enough. She knew that he would be there for her when she woke up.

She extended her arm to touch his knee, not to wake him but to feel some bodily warmth, feeling empty without the other life in her belly. She sighed, hoping to see her child soon, but she knew that her baby was weak and brought to a different room for special treatment. She would be allowed to see the little one after having something to eat. So she rung for the nurse.

It did not take long for the elder lady in pink to come and see to her needs.

Despite the two women being considerate towards Kenma by speaking in hushed voices and trying not to make more noise than necessary, the young father woke up. After rubbing the sleep out of his eyes he smiled at his Hitoka. "Good morning" he said and gave her a chaste kiss when the nurse had left. "How are you feeling?"

"Exhausted, still." She smiled. "But it's not so bad. Do you think we can see our baby soon?"

Kenma nodded. "As soon as you have eaten and are dressed to walk around we're going to be taken to the room. At least they promised me that yesterday after taking the baby away."

A wave of relief swept through her body. It was rather unnerving not having her child with her after it grew in her body for the past nine months. So when the nurse brought the tray of food she started to eat with a healthy appetite and she inquired after the wellbeing of her baby. Everything seemed fine, so they would probably bring the baby bed back into the room in the afternoon.

"Maybe Kuroo and Tsukishima will come just in time" Kenma mused. "I called Kuroo yesterday after you had fallen asleep and he promised that he would tear Tsukishima from his work and bring him here for a brief visit. He really wants to be one of the first to see our little one."

Yachi smiled. She was happy that Kuroo cared so much. She was really happy that her husband had such a good friend. She was also extremely happy that Tsukishima found his soul mate in him, even though that was a rough journey.

Remembering how the two had finally found each other warmed her heart. Of course her story with Kenma was special and nice too, but she would probably tell her child more often about the star-crossed uncles than about her and Kenma.

Their own story, Yachi thought, was probably rather ordinary, meeting during high school, becoming friends, talking about what being 'soul mates' meant to them...

They married two years after Yachi graduated with a Master's degree in web design and Kenma had wanted to go independent with a small company. It was the perfect timing to open "Yachi Designs". It was a sub-company to "Yachi Create". Now they were in business five years and the roughest part about opening their own business was over, it seemed only natural to enlarge their family.

For Kuroo and Tsukishima the path to happiness wasn't so smooth.

Yachi shook her head, smiling when she remembered how even Kenma felt like someone should intervene. After Yachi told him that Kei's kanji was the one for firefly, he had not understood why Tsukishima had backed off. Even though the former Nekoma setter lacked the will to fight at times, he swore that for Yachi, for his soul mate, he would have stood up and tried to convince her that he was the one if another Kenma would have shown up.

Yachi had heard from her husband that Kuroo was miserable for those three years he was separated from Tsukishima. Kuroo was at his lowest after having gone to Sendai to see Tsukishima to ask what was wrong and Tsukishima had refused to meet or speak with him ever again. While Kuroo tried to attain happiness after that, he had always failed, feeling as if something was missing with Tsukishima gone and it only come back after their change meeting in University.

The story with Sugawara's brother was obviously a fake cover thought of by the senpai to help the blond. Sugawara did in fact have a brother, but not by the name of Tetsurou. Yachi liked hearing Kenma tell Kuroo that he was a naive idiot for believing that there could be such a coincidence as someone finding their soul mate at the exact same time as they hear about someone else finding theirs.

"What are you smiling about?" Kenma asked handing her the hairbrush she had asked him to give her a moment before.

"Do you remember the time Kuroo had just become Lev's cousin's tutor and Tsukishima had pretended that Sugawara-senpai's brother was named Tetsurou as well?"

Kenma snorted. "Yes. That was an awkward visit. Kuroo was really pissed after that... I'm still amazed that he had never thought about why he reacted that way upon hearing that... He was so convinced that Lev's cousin had to be his soul mate, though anyone who saw them together must have understood that they were not meant to be. Kuroo was not himself when with her."

Yachi giggled. "But it was sort of cute seeing him so lost... Tell me again, how did he react when he saw Tskishima at the University after all that time?"

"His face immediately changed and it was like, he was radiating happiness again… for the first time in a long time." Kenma shook his head. "I'm glad he decided to go all in that day..."

"Me too. Having him all depressed on our wedding would have been no fun." She giggled again.

The nurse came back to take the tray away and told the two of them that a nurse from the specialized ward where their baby was being treated would come to escort them in half an hour. Yachi smiled at her and thanked her before the nurse left the room again.

"Well, I guess I should at least put on my morning robe." Yachi smiled and let Kenma give her the garment. She checked her hairstyle in her hand mirror and pat her cheeks with one hand to make them flush a bit. She felt a bit too pale.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door and Yachi's mother stuck her head into the room. "Good morning." She looked cheerful. "How are you doing?" She stepped into the room and sat down on the chair, which Kenma vacated for her.

"I'm better, thanks." Hitoka smiled at her mother. "You are right on time, soon the nurse will escort us to the ward where our baby is."

"Oh! Am I not lucky then?" Yachi Madoka smiled one of her rare genuine smiles.

They spent their time talking about this and that until the nurse came and Hitoka was put into a wheel chair. Kenma pushed her while Yachi Madoka asked the nurse a lot of questions concerning her grandchild.

As the treatment wasn't finished yet, only the mother was allowed to go into the room where the baby was being treated. Kenma and the grandmother stayed outside watching the reunion of mother and child through the large glass window.

"Oh isn't it a cute baby?" Kenma said with a small smile on his lips. "I am sure, when the child gets older, it will take after Hitoka."

"Aw. Don't say such things, our little sunshine will certainly take after you in some ways." She stroked his back. "So, have you decided on a name yet?" He told her and she chuckled. "That's a nice name."

They watched Hitoka and the child for a while before the curtain was drawn to give her some privacy to breastfeed for the first time.

It was after lunchtime when the baby was released from the special ward and brought to Hitoka's room. About an hour later Kuroo and Tsukishima arrived with a large fruit basket. Kuroo hugged Yachi, congratulating her on the birth and then teased Kenma about not going into the birth room with her, while Tsukishima smiled in a friendly manner and put the gift basket on the nearest table next to some flowers.

"You look good," he said to Yachi and sat down on a chair Kenma brought from outside the room.

"Thank you. I'm a bit tired though." She smiled. "Do you want to hold the child?"

"Oh no, I can't." Tsukishima waved his hand. "Have Kuroo hold it first, he has been looking forward to it ever since he's heard that you're pregnant."

"Yes, yes! Let me be the first to hold it!" Kuroo said agitated.

Kenma sighed and took the baby from the cradle. "Don't drop our precious little one." He placed the tiny human in Kuroo's strong arms.

"I would never!" The black haired man protested, but instantly tensed when the child was in his arms. It was just so fragile.

Tsukishima looked over the shoulder of his soul mate and lightly touched the baby's face. "So what name did you choose?"

Yachi giggled a bit and there was glittering amusement in Kenma's eyes as he took out a card from the drawer next to Yachi's bed. "Here," he said and showed them the two kanji. 穂樽.

Tsukishima rolled his eyes. "Really?" He asked with a hint of amusement in his voice, looking at Yachi's beaming smile before looking down at the baby again.

Kuroo looked at the card a while longer and laughed. "Hotaru, huh?"

* * *

Dear muntchkins & tortoises!

Thank you to everyone who read this and even more "thank you" to everyone who commented and kudoed and I am really grateful to all of you who have been with me. Thank you also to my beta LilyPhantomhive01 and gamma The May Waters who have been amazingly helpful. I am so sorry to see the story end but I promise that I will soon upload the first chapter of the BokuAka side story to this.

Best wishes &

Jia ne.


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